


Discussions Are Happening Over Dinner

by rafamarkos5998



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Arkham Asylum, Arkham Asylum is Terrible, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Feelings, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, Damian Wayne is Robin, Damian Wayne is a Brat, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Final Crisis (DCU) References, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Jason Todd, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sex, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Jason Todd Gets A Hug, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd and Damian Wayne Meet in the League of Assassins, Jason should not have been there, POV Batfamily, POV Multiple, POV Third Person, Spying, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim shares some of Bruce's problems, and rise like them too, is not nice, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:07:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25634056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rafamarkos5998/pseuds/rafamarkos5998
Summary: Bruce only wanted to keep tabs on Jason. It's not his fault that he has to do it via hidden bugs. That's a totally normal reaction to your son wanting to spend a week by himself.If only he knew what he was getting himself into.AKA the Batfamily end up finding out that Steph and Jason are in a relationship. Despite the fact that the two weren't even trying to hide it. Bruce and Tim's initial fear of bearing witness to a sex tape is quickly shattered by an even worse outcome - honest, open conversation.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members & Jason Todd, Batfamily Members & Stephanie Brown, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Past Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake - Relationship, Stephanie Brown & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown/Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 268
Kudos: 675





	1. Prelude to Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write some fluff as a break from writing angst all the time. Hence, this piece - which contains angst with some relief thrown in. Apologies in advance.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The snowball of disaster begins rolling down the hill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I firmly believe that JaySteph is the only Batfam ship that has any long-term potential. Steph is the only one in the family with a hint of normalcy about herself, and Jason is one of two people who actually respect her - the other being Cass. I personally don't see Cass as much of a romantic, so... this one has my vote for most solid ship.
> 
> This here is my take on said ship.

The trouble started with Jason's frankly odd request. It was made at an odd time - just before Wednesday's patrol. It was made in an odd way - calling the Cave's landline. And to top it all off, it was an odd thing to ask.

"So B, just a heads up, I'm not gonna be patrolling this Saturday. Can you get BB or Red to fill in for me? They just need to cover my standard patrol route, and I'm pretty sure you know what the route is, thanks to your stalker tendencies."

Needless to say, Bruce was unnerved. He felt a flash of irritation at Jason accusing him of spying on his own son but decided to not bring that up on account of him being right.

"Why do you need them to patrol for you? Is something wrong? Are you sick? Injured? I can send Agent A over-"

"Calm your tits, B, it's just some personal stuff I got to take care of. No need to go mother henning me, Agent A and 'Wing do enough of that already."

The crackle in his voice made him sound unusually calm and happy, although that might just be the connection and Bruce's desire to believe that his efforts to repair their relationship had worked.

They had worked, right? He'd been having polite conversations with Jason for a while now, and they didn't end with them trying to kill each other. For the most part. Not seriously, at least. Probably.

"B, you still there? I need an answer. And please say yes."

"...Yes?"

"Yes! Love you B, thanks a bunch, see ya later old man!"

"Jason, hold on a second - and he hung up. Brilliant." Bruce sighed.

Well, at least they didn't end up cursing each other. _Progress_ , he thought, as he turned around to notify his children, only to see Tim standing behind him.

"I got it, B. And I'm just as confused as you. But if I were you, I wouldn't push it. Your relationship is still fragile, one wrong push and he'd run for the hills."

"Yes, I'm glad that I'm one bad conversation away from torpedoing my relationship with my son," Bruce said, with an uncharacteristic level of heat and sarcasm.

"If it's any consolation, he's still here. You haven't done anything monumentally stupid yet."

 _That's not wrong_ , Bruce thought. He decided to wait and see if Jason would explain himself.

\---------------------------------

Then the situation became doubly more bizarre when Stephanie made the same request on Friday while leaving the Cave for the daily patrol.

"Bruce, I need a raincheck on patrol for tomorrow. I got some stuff to do. That's cool with you, right? Last I checked, we didn't have anything major going on."

"Er - no, we don't. I suppose it should be fine, but-"

"Aw, thanks B, you're the man! In return, I promise to not bleed you completely dry. See ya later!" Steph yelled, as she got on her bike and left the Cave.

"Wait, you haven't told me why you - and she's gone."

"Okay, this is troubling. Extremely troubling." Tim said, his tone uncertain. "Both her and Jason asked for a day off. On the same day."

"Wait, Jason too?" Dick asked.

"Yes, he called in on Wednesday. The conversation we had was strangely similar." Bruce replied.

"Tt. It is obvious, they are plotting something." Damian declared.

"As much as it pains me to say this, I agree with the Demon Brat." Tim replied glumly. "And considering the people involved, it's unlikely to be something good.

"B, don't you have cameras in Jason's place? You know, the safehouse that he hasn't really left in the past year or so?" Tim asked.

"Wait, how do you - yes, I do." Bruce said. Asking how Tim knows is a pointless exercise. Tim has mastered the art of being a better detective than Batman.

"Well, we can put them to use tomorrow. They'll likely meet up at Jason's place since Steph's mom is at home these days. Probably after college. We can catch them then."

"Cassandra, has Steph given you any hints about what she's up to?" Bruce asked. Cassandra liked him, right? She would tell him what's going on.

Cass looked at the group of boys before her. She said nothing, but the expression on her face seemed to be asking _seriously?_ before shifting to one of condescending pity.

"I agree." Barbara's piped in, the Oracle voice modulator unable to entirely keep out the mirth. "You're all idiots. And I would tell you that your plan is a bad idea, but you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?"

"This is serious, Gordon, we need to know what they're up to." Damian replied.

"First - you don't, not really. You just have an overwhelming desire to know things other people want to hide, privacy be damned. Second - it's not right to pry without their permission. Third - it's obvious. You shouldn't need to spy on them to know. And before you ask - no, I'm not telling, because it's not my story to tell."

"Well, if it isn't something harmful, why are they trying to hide it?" Tim queried.

"... I'm not going to dignify that with a response. You boys are complete idiots." Barbara said. "End of conversation, let's get back to work." She refused to lose more brain cells to the pointless tirade that the Batboys would have engaged her in.

\---------------------------------

In retrospect, they should have listened to the girls.

When Bruce brought up the feeds from the various cameras set up inside Jason's house, he found his son wearing an apron and moving through the kitchen, humming an unrecognizable tune while stirring something at the kitchen counter. He made a mental note to ask Alfred what he was cooking - it would be useful for later bonding exercises. That's how bonding works, right?

Tim, Dick and Damian pulled up some beanbags to sit behind Bruce, who was solidly and uncomfortably planted on the Batman chair, despite being in civvies. They remained silent, and Bruce surmised that they were making the same mental notes as him. Cass did come down into the Cave at one point but left after taking one look at them, shaking her head and muttering under her breath. The remaining observers settled back down, preparing themselves for a lengthy vigil.

Just when Bruce was about to get up and take a break to stretch his muscles, there was a knock on Jason's door. Behind him, Bruce heard Dick attempting to wake Tim up. Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce noticed a warning message from Barbara asking him to stop, but he ignored it.

"Honey, I'm home." Stephanie's voice rang out through the Cave's speakers.

Tim let out a strangled gasp, choking on air. Damian, for once, did not pounce of the opportunity to berate him, instead choosing to growl at the screen. Dick collapsed backwards onto the beanbag, as Bruce gripped the sides of his chair so tightly that it was a wonder that the metal didn't bend and snap under his vice-like hold. (The leather, sadly, did suffer irreparable damage.)

"You don't live here." Jason deadpanned. "Unless that was your way to ask me to let you move in, in which case, points for originality, I guess."

"Sadly, we're not there yet. You might have charmed Mom, but she isn't just going to buy into it that easily."

"Hey, I'm about 60% sure your mom would agree to you moving in with your boyfriend who can cook for you and make sure you get some actual sleep instead of collapsing whenever your body gives out."

"Look, she's barely on board with us having sex. She might be in a good mood whenever you're around, but I don't want to push it."

"You're an adult, pretty sure you're up for establishing some rebellious independence."

"My 'rebellious independent kid' allowance ran out when I got pregnant before I graduated."

"Yeah, mine ran out when I died. Didn't stop me from rebelling anyway."

"I think us being with each other is enough rebellion for now."

As the four Bats looked on in shock at the scene unfolding before them, the couple - _couple!_ \- decided to keep making their eavesdropping even more uncomfortable.

"Well, at least tonight we have a bed. I'm tired of making out on rooftops and in alleyways. As much as I like you, Blondie, I'd prefer to lie on a mattress instead of rubbing my ass on concrete." Jason drawled.

Tim's face blanched, and Dick was afraid that his baby brother would have a stroke right then and there. He wasn't sure if he would be able to help him, considering that his own brain seemed to be stuck in blue-screen mode. From what he could see, Bruce wasn't doing much better. Damian seemed to be the only one somewhat in control of his emotions, if not for the fact that his eyebrows had joined to form a scowl more terrifying than Batman's.

"Well, I was going to make a joke about your gun and being happy to see me, but... I guess that ship's sailed already, hasn't it?" Stephanie asked, almost sounding sad about having missed the opportunity.

"Well, that _is_ my gun on the table, and yeah, I _am_ happy to see you." Jason sniffed the air a bit, before turning back to whatever he was stirring. "Hold that thought. Need to get back to the stir-fry. Can you set the plates and get the booze?"

"Wait, are we getting drunk on our anniversary?" Stephanie asked, her coy smile barely visible through the camera.

 _Anniversary?_ The entire spy quartet did a double-take at that. _How long has this been going on?_

"Yep. We are. We're going to get _hammered_ today. With some actual good quality alcohol. Not the substandard shit they serve at bars to the young ignorant fools."

"You want to fuck me when you're hammered out of your mind? Or are you hoping to get me drunk first?"

 _Oh no_ , Dick thought. _I don't want to bear witness to my brother's sex tape._

"Neither - today, let's just talk. Let's be sappy romantics for a day."

 _Oh no_ , Bruce thought. _I don't want to know what they actually think of us._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is just a bit of setup, establishing Bruce as an exasperated Dad. I like the idea of him being completely unable to handle his kids being independent human beings.


	2. Unnaturally Domestic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph and Jason are being domestic in Jason's apartment, and the Batfamily are losing their shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the low-stakes lead-up to Steph and Jason talking about the things closest to their hearts. Bruce and co. are not ready for any of this.

Tim wasn't sure what he was expecting when they surmised that Jason and Steph were plotting something together, but it definitely wasn't this. He'd expected a prank of some sort, some sabotage, property damage or frivolous spending, not what appeared to be a long-standing relationship between his ex and his predecessor.

As he watched Jason standing at the cooking range, stirring the mixture in front of him with a wooden spatula, he noticed Steph going towards a cabinet. Her movements indicated a level of familiarity that she had never shown around him. Even when they thought they were going to be together for the rest of their lives.

As Steph removed a set of plates from the cabinet and placed them at their appropriate locations on the small table situated in the living room, it struck him how... normal this looked. The two of them looked like any other young couple in Gotham preparing for a stay-at-home dinner. As the sun sets, the apartment is filled with a golden glow, and it looks unnaturally peaceful and domestic. The only thing that made the situation strange was the knowledge that the two people they were watching were Red Hood and Batgirl.

Tim didn't know how to process this information. That Jason and Steph, two people he had grown pretty close to, had gotten together and hadn't told him. Well, he could think of a lot of reasons why they wouldn't, but he'd like to believe that he would have taken the news well. The fact that he wasn't handling it properly at the current moment was entirely because of the spying situation. He wasn't feeling betrayed or jealous at all. Nope, not one bit.

He watched Steph arrange the plates on the table, and carry some serving bowls into the kitchen. Jason appeared to be laser-focused on the job of creating the perfect stir-fry, which was understandable, considering that this was some sort of anniversary. Jason tended to be very particular about getting things right with his culinary endeavours even when it was a random Tuesday dinner. He wasn't likely to be careless today, especially when he had a partner to cook for and celebrate with.

Steph placed the crockery in her hand on the kitchen island, then moved to wrap her arms around Jason's waist and hug him. She rested her head on his shoulder and murmured inaudibly into his ear. While they couldn't hear her, or Jason's response, they did notice the fact that he seemed to relax at her touch. They hadn't even noticed that he had been tense before this - and upon reflection, Tim realized that this meant that Jason was always nervous and wound-up while he was around the rest of the family. Another reason to wonder if they had actually managed to build a working relationship.

After a while, Steph moved away from Jason, as he picked up the pan containing the stir-fry and poured it into the serving bowls on the counter. A part of Tim's mind was telling him that this was quite a lot of food for two people, but it failed to properly register as he watched his ex-girlfriend pick up the bowls and set them on the table. As if they had done this a thousand times already.

 _They probably have_ , his mind supplied, ramping up his irrational dislike of the people he was watching. He wondered what else Jason was cooking for Steph when he pulled out a waffle iron from a cupboard.

Steph let out a celebratory whoop. "Yes! Finally!"

"Don't make me reconsider my decisions." Jason replied, sounding tired but amused.

"You won't, you love me."

"...This is exploitation. Not fair, Blondie."

"You know the saying about love and war?"

"Keep talking, and you won't get any of the bacon."

Steph mimed zipping her lips shut, and Jason pulled out a cup containing what must have been batter for the waffles from the fridge along with some frozen strips of bacon. Steph went to another wall-length cupboard and removed what appear to be bottles of alcohol. They couldn't see the labels, but considering the kind of money they knew Jason had laid away, they were unlikely to be the cheap variety.

\---------------------------------

Dick was still trying to take in the fact that his Little Wing had a girlfriend when he placed a plate of bacon strips down on the table, next to the absurdly tall stack of waffles.

"I have to say, I prefer this to last time." Steph said. "Even though punching criminals with you is pretty damn fun."

"Speak for yourself. The only fun thing about that night was getting to fuck on top of the Batsignal."

"Hey, at least the Sirens were pretty chill about it and went back home instead of adding to our mountain of 'people that need to be apprehended right now'. Because I was _not_ in the mood for chasing after them after twenty hours of trying to get Arkham inmates back to their cells."

"Hey, at least we didn't have to deal with the Joker, thanks to B going on his 'I need to do this alone so that nobody else dies' crusade again. Which is kinda demeaning if you're not him, but honestly, I'll take any excuse to not have him breathing down my back."

At that, Dick's mind flashed back to the last major Arkham breakout that lasted that long, which from what he could remember, had happened around a year ago. On the side, he could see Bruce looking up previous Arkham breakouts where the Joker got free, and lo and behold - the most recent one was a year back to the day. Which meant that this relationship had been going for at least two years.

Normally, he'd have been worried about how the Joker hasn't done anything serious for this long, or proud about how they'd managed to not have any issues with the clown for a whole year, but all he could think about was what Jason had been hiding from him.

Two years. _Two years_. Two years and his own little brother hadn't told him a word. He thought about all the teasing he'd missed out on, all the shovel talk, all the double dates and Valentine's Day gifts and everything else that comes with your little brother being in love.

And that's how long the two had actually been in a relationship. He'd missed out on the build-up, the pining, the proposal - so much stuff.

Had Jason tried to tell him at some point, and he'd just ignored it? He didn't remember hearing anything approaching relationship talk from Jason, but was that because Jason hadn't told him, or because he'd simply not paid attention? He tried remembering anything that stood out in the past few years when it came to conversations with Jason, only to find... very few instances of him actually talking to him, and wasn't that another thing to be ashamed of? He'd been neglecting his Little Wing even after getting a second chance. He probably didn't deserve to be told about any developments in his life.

Swallowing down his pride and guilt, he steeled himself and continued to observe. He needed to know if Steph was good for Jason. (A part of his mind whispered back that he had no right to judge, given how badly he had mistreated his brother, but he pushed it down to focus on the present.)

\---------------------------------

Damian frowned at the screen as Todd and Brown gorged themselves on the food they had set on the table before them. While it was a given that they would eat more than an average human being to make up the increased energy requirements of vigilantism, there was no excuse for the gluttony on display here. Not to mention that the food set before them consisted of absurd quantities of meat - he did not think the Flashes could consume that many calories without becoming morbidly obese.

He wondered who was getting shortchanged in this relationship - Brown, who clearly did not deserve a mate who was as good at cooking as Todd was, or Todd, who obviously did not deserve a partner as understanding and outgoing and patient as Brown was. They were, at the same time, too good for each other and not good enough. Which, in its own way, made it an oddly fitting match. He did not know what to make of the dissatisfaction he felt when he came to that particular conclusion.

While he was able to hear the conversation going on as food went into mouths and wine was poured into glasses, he could not bring himself to focus on it. His mind was stuck on the fact that the relationship the two people before him shared was working for them - and going by the easy familiarity they shared with each other, it had been going on for some time. He noticed how they looked entirely at ease in each other's presence, how they were unafraid to let the conversation die down for a while, only to start up again at a random topic. They would go from discussing cases to funny incidents with the rest of the family to some TV show about... scythes that were also sniper rifles? What did that even mean? He had no clue, but they were apparently very invested in it, as evidenced by the avid discussion the two were having about the themes and ideas of the show.

He noticed how the couple did not sit at opposite ends of the table, as various manuals on courting he had consulted were wont to advertise it. (Yes, he had seen them. He had his reasons for consulting them, and they were purely academic, mind you.) They sat next to each other, at right angles - they could turn to talk to each other with relative ease but did not have to be continuously focused on the fact that they were face to face with the object of their affections. He made a quick mental note of that (again, for purely academic reasons).

From what he could understand, Todd and Brown did have significant experience with sexual intercourse. Considering that there wasn't any sign of pregnancy, they had apparently not properly consummated their relationship yet. That seemed somewhat appropriate for their situation, given that they were both active vigilantes and were perpetually at risk of life and limb. Still, they could easily take a break from the business for a short while. They will not be young forever, and there needs to be a new generation of soldiers for him to have at his side when he takes his father's mantle. Given their physical characteristics, their offspring were likely to be well-suited to the task of serving him effectively.

Although if they inherited the eating habits of their sires, it would be a challenge to keep them in shape. He was unable to figure out how the two of them managed to maintain fitness despite their prodigious ability to inhale food as if it were merely air.

\---------------------------------

As Steph and Jason put the dirty tableware in the dishwasher, Bruce wondered how he had missed this. From the looks on their faces, they didn't seem worried about one of the family dropping in on their nest. Considering how often Cassandra stayed over at Jason or Stephanie's place, it was surely a cause for concern.

 _Unless they don't need to worry about her finding out. Because she already knows._ Bruce grimaced at the thought of his daughter being privy to secrets about his son's private life that he hadn't been told about. (A part of him chided himself for being jealous of his own daughter, but he pushed it to the side to focus on gleaning more and more information about the state of his son's relationship.)

Logically, he knew that both Stephanie and Jason were adults who were free to do whatever they wanted, but the parental side of him wanted to be able to do _something_ to be able to reassure himself that his son was safe. The same went for Stephanie, who he'd come to see as a daughter as she spent more and more time around the family. He wanted to be able to yell at someone and ensure that they stayed in line - although who he wanted to yell at and what exactly he wanted to say, he did not know. Given what he'd heard so far, they'd already been sleeping with each other for a while - anything he had to say on _that_ topic was woefully late.

"So, time to break out the whiskey?" Steph asked, sounding playfully amused. Her posture and her tone reminded Bruce of Selina - given the way they'd been talking about the Sirens, they were probably in touch with each other.

Evidently his pseudo-daughter had been taking lessons in seduction from his pseudo-girlfriend. And with that, came the realization that his estranged ex was closer to his son than he was. He tried to stamp out the bitter flames of jealousy that sprang up inside him. (He was unsuccessful in that endeavour.)

"Nah, let's go with the absinthe. We can sleep in today, nurse off the hangover over tomorrow afternoon. I can make pretty good prairie oysters, you know." Jason said.

Wow. Evidently, he hadn't been joking about getting hammered.

"You do know that prairie oysters don't cure hangovers. In fact, there is no cure for hangovers - at least none that have any significant level of scientific support."

"...I'll defer to the med school student here. But only if you explain how it's worked on me for all these years."

"Simple. Placebo effect. Also, the distraction of swallowing a raw egg might have something to do with it."

"You do know that we've been writing about prairie oysters curing hangovers since P.G. Wodehouse?"

"Doesn't change the fact that there's no substantial proof that it works. And I love you and your cooking, but I'm not eating raw eggs on your recommendation."

A part of Bruce was proud of Stephanie for debunking Jason's false beliefs. The rest of him was still reeling from the easy declarations of love.

"...Damn thee, damn thee, damn thee to hell, thou hast wounded me with thy brutal declaration of-"

"No, Jay, I'm not drunk enough to listen to you trying to speak Middle English."

"That's not Middle English, that's early Modern English. We've talked about this-"

"And as much as I like you, I'm not going through that discussion sober. Let's lay off the overly hard stuff, we have time to get drunk slowly and enjoy ourselves."

"Love you too, Blondie. And don't worry, you're not going to forget this night in a long, long time."

 _Love you too_. He hadn't realized how much he'd wanted to hear Jason say those words to him than when he heard him say them to Stephanie. He knew how ridiculous it was for him to envy a girl that may as well be his daughter, who he'd taken under his wing and treated like his other children, for something so small and insignificant. But Bruce had always been and will always be a jealous man, and the fire burned through him, happy to have more targets to latch onto and plaster with his petty, irrational hatred.

And as his son pulled out a few glasses from the cupboard and wiped them clean with a towel, Stephanie went to work opening the bottle of... was that Glenmorangie? Evidently, his children had cultivated a taste for top-shelf Scotch whisky. He'd have to ask them where that came from. Both of them were barely past the legal age for drinking, there was no way they should have been able to filter out what he recognized to be a somewhat rare vintage that is over 30 years old. He made a mental note to ask Alfred for some pointers. Getting a bottle for them seemed like a good way to approach the issue.

 _Wait. Had_ they _asked Alfred for pointers?_ Bruce didn't want to jump to conclusions but the green flame inside him was at it again, casting suspicion on Alfred in a way that made him already want to hate the man who might as well be his father. He didn't go as far as to actually hate him - nobody can hate Alfred, after all - but it was a close call. He knew he should have left the screen, given the two lovebirds the privacy they so obviously desired, but he wasn't going to just let Stephanie have these moments of quiet domestic intimacy. Not when he couldn't have access to any of that with his son. (Yes, he knew that that was a stupid line of thought, but he was Bruce fucking Wayne, dammit. He was allowed to want things that people can't have, and expect to get them.)

Stephanie poured a pair of pretty stiff drinks into the glasses. Unlike the bottle, the glasses looked pretty cheap, geared towards functionality over style. Considering that the people using them were used to the abject poverty of the worst parts of Gotham, that shouldn't have been all that surprising, but it was. The couple decided to sit on the couches in the living room, putting their legs on the small coffee table that sat in front of them, their legs touching.

"I could get used to this." Stephanie remarked.

"So could I." Jason replied. "It's nice, isn't it? Nothing to worry about for a day?"

"Yeah. It's nice. Peaceful." Stephanie's smile dropped. "I wish we could stay like this."

"If you want, we can."

"Yeah, you're forgetting all the familial pressure."

"Your mom's not going to be that opposed. I'm about 70 - okay, 60% sure that she'll be on board. 53 at worst."

"Yeah, my mom's not the only person who you need to talk to."

"I mean, Cass and Babs would probably give me an even worse version of the shovel talk I got last time, but I can't see them opposing us."

"Stop beating around the bush, you know who I'm talking about."

Jason frowned. "I don't need to tell them. If they do find out, I can just tell them to leave. And I can get all the Outlaws to give them some encouragement to leave me alone. I'll make sure you can go visit them and stay around them if you want, though, that won't be an issue-"

"Stop denying it. You would like B to approve of your relationship. Dick, Tim and Dami too."

"Yeah, I've kinda given up on that. It's like getting B to accept killing - even if he actually agrees with it, he would rather die than say it."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow. Among the denizens of the Cave, the facial reaction was much more pronounced. However, in the verbal department, they both asked the same question.

"What?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that this was a decent follow-up to the previous chapter. I'm trying to take this into more serious territory while keeping some level of levity. Damian's segment was the most fun to write for me - a prepubescent child assassin who is in some ways way more mature than the rest of the men makes for an interesting perspective. Also, Bruce is jealous, yes, but it's firmly rooted in parental love and a sheltered upbringing. Whether that deserves sympathy or ridicule, I haven't decided yet.
> 
> The boys were pretty sure that Steph and Jason are going to talk about the rest of the family since they have made it a point to not tell them that they are in a relationship. Considering that it's the two Robins who _always_ call people out on their shit, they're not going to like what they have to say about the Batboys. And that intuition is about to be proven right in the worst possible way for them.


	3. On the Subject of Killing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Steph discuss Bruce and killing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why you (don't) kill is important, because it also tells what you'd make exceptions for.

Steph's raised eyebrow stayed that way for a few seconds. While it eventually came down, the stalkers in the cave could still feel their eyes popping out of their heads.

"Okay, I did not see that one coming." Steph remarked. "Care to explain?"

 _Yes_ , everyone in the cave thought. _Please do that_.

Jason sighed, picking up his drink and getting up to join Steph on her couch. He sat beside her and nuzzled into her side in a show of intimacy that made the family both uncomfortable and sad. Uncomfortable, because they were again reminded that this conversation was not meant for them; sad, because it was apparent that this was something Jason would never have talked about with them despite how important it was to them.

With a deep breath, Jason asked, "So, I'm guessing you already know that despite the no-killing rule, Bruce has killed plenty of people."

"No, I don't think I do." Steph replied, speaking for everyone else listening.

Jason barked out a laugh, short and sad. "Well, apart from the hundreds who have died thanks to infected wounds he's given them, and the various special scenarios that don't relate to the main story of our lives, he's killed twice."

Stephanie decides not to take the obvious bait and close in on the main issue. "As much as I'd like to say that it's a low number compared to you, Cass or the munchkin-" and hearing that, Damian let out a snarl before quickly regaining his composure, "-part of the point of him is that he doesn't kill, no matter what. Who are these two specials that made him lose control?"

Jason's face twisted into something between a grimace and a smile. "He didn't lose control. He wanted to kill them - and Bruce always gets what he wants."

Bruce did not like the tone of Jason's voice. He wondered who Jason was speaking of, and why. He would freely admit to having killed once in his life, but the circumstances were surely understandable to everyone, including the Justice League. There was no other choice.

"The first one you need to know about, is Darkseid. The circumstances are not exactly important - what _is_ important is knowing that Bruce shot him with a Radion bullet, which eventually killed him."

Before anyone could form any coherent thoughts on what Jason had said, he spoke again.

"Before you say anything else, know this - Bruce was right. It was the only way of stopping Darkseid from destroying reality, and he saved us all in the process. It was only thanks to him that Superman was able to defeat Darkseid and rebuild our universe. And yeah, Superman might have been the one who stopped Darkseid and the Dark Monitor from ending the universe, but it was the bullet that killed him."

Tim, Dick and Damian looked at each other, doubt in their eyes. While they did have some clue about what had happened when Bruce had been sent back in time, in the grand scheme of things they knew very little about the details of the affair. While Tim did know what had happened in the events they now called the Final Crisis, he hadn't really given it more than a cursory glance. At the time, getting Bruce back was the important thing.

It was hard to criticize Bruce when Jason, of all people, seemed genuinely appreciative of Bruce for going back on his code. They had all expected some form of snark, about Bruce refusing to kill the Joker but eventually going on to kill a different villain. Killing a god to save the universe while refusing to kill the devil for your son might make Bruce look noble and heroic, but it did not make him look kind or compassionate.

"Okay... how do you know about stuff like that? That sounds like top-secret stuff to me. And you're not even part of the hero community." Steph asks.

Jason waved his hands dismissively. "That's a different story for another time. Maybe when I'm a bit more drunk. But that's not what matters here. What matters is that Bruce killed him - and he did not do it because he was enraged, or scared, or mind-controlled, or some other extenuating circumstances. He did it because that was the only option he had."

As much as the three boys wanted to believe otherwise, they knew that it was probably true. Bruce was a master logician - he would not take an action if it wasn't the best one available to him. Yes, he was merely human, but the odds of someone discovering a better solution to dealing with an entity like Darkseid were astronomically low.

However, the way Jason had approached the issue did reveal a very troubling side of what would have otherwise been a universally appreciated act. The Rule, after all, was what defined the Bats and set them apart from the rest. What set them apart from the things they fought.

"The second instance of him killing someone went roughly the same. Yes, the plot and characters were different, but the story was the same. He analyzed the situation, and he came to the conclusion that the only way out was to kill someone."

Steph, evidently, wasn't up for Jason's evasive manoeuvres. "Stop dodging. Tell me." The jovial mood that had been present ever since Steph had walked into the house had vanished.

Jason took a shaky breath, leaning away from Stephanie and turning to face her. He pulled down the turtleneck of the t-shirt he was wearing, hands trembling as he curled it down. Steph let out a small gasp. One that was echoed by three of the occupants of the Cave.

On his neck was a large scar. It was old and had healed, but the wound must have been very deep when inflicted. It extended across the left side of his neck, and it was clear that it must have been deep enough to pierce the carotid. The cut had two main incision points, which meant one of two things.

Option one - that the attacker had cut into his neck twice.

Option two - the weapon used pierced his neck at two separate points. There aren't many weapons that fit that bill. One of the ones that does, and is the most likely given the spacing of the incisions, is a Batarang.

\---------------------------------

Tim had initially liked the fact that Bruce had placed a large number of cameras in Jason's room. Despite the fact that it would be more difficult to hide, it made sure that they had complete coverage of the wayward child of the family. He had also appreciated that Bruce had invested a lot of time and money in making sure that the cameras could record high-quality video and were smaller than the bugs they normally used. He had wholeheartedly supported the inclusion of microphones in the surveillance equipment and had even polished up Bruce's rudimentary program to combine the audio from the various sources so that they could clearly hear whatever was being said inside the house.

Now, he was regretting all of those choices, since they had ensured that he could not ignore what Jason had just told them. The image of his brother's scarred neck seared itself into his mind, and his hand absentmindedly went to the one he had on his own.

When Jason had cut into his neck with the knife, it wasn't anywhere close to being fatal, but his heart rate had gone through the roof and he had prayed - honest to god, _prayed_ \- for something, some _one_ , to save him. He still had nightmares about bleeding out from a neck wound, of dying alone with nobody there to try and save him.

He wondered what Jason had thought of when he knew he was going to die. If he'd asked for deliverance or accepted the peace it would bring. Did he pray for help, as Tim did in his dreams? Who did he want to see come rushing to his aid?

A small part of his brain hung onto hope, saying that it must have been an accident. But if it had been, wouldn't Bruce have tried to help? And if Jason was already dead, wouldn't he have at least held onto his corpse, to give it a proper burial? Bruce had gone to great lengths to resuscitate the Joker, of all people, surely Jason was worth more than that, even at his worst?

Finally, Jason covered up the scar again and curled back into Steph's side. Steph extended an arm around him and pulled him in even closer. It might have been comical, seeing Jason's large body folded into Steph's side, if not for the circumstances that led to it. Jason was trembling, and Steph pulled up her other arm to envelop Jason in a tight hug. Putting one hand on the back of his head, she let him tuck it into the crook of her neck as he sobbed silently, the only sign being his hitching breath that the microphone in the plant pot was only barely able to register.

That particular one had been part of a set planted by Tim when he'd gone in to aid Bruce's mission to keep tabs on Jason. He wanted to go back in time and stop his past self from doing it because no, he definitely did not need to know that his brother was crying about his father assaulting him.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably just a few minutes, Jason pulled back, his eyes puffy and red and his face covered in tear tracks. There was a damp mass on Steph's top, but it received just a passing glance. The good news was, the shaking had stopped. For a second, Steph looked like she wanted to break down and cry with her boyfriend, but then a determined look crossed her face and looked right into Jason's eyes.

"Tell. Me. Everything." Her voice was cold, almost inhuman.

Jason's lower lip quivered as he looked down, looking like he was about to burst into tears again. 

The look on Steph's face softened. " _Please_." she said, her tone soft and pleading now. "I need to know why."

Jason looked back up at Steph. "What do you know about what happened when I tried to kill the Joker?"

"Not much. Just that you tried to kill the Joker, and that Bruce stopped you."

"Okay." Jason took in a lungful of air as if preparing himself for battle. Tim conceded that that was a fair reaction - talking about being killed for the second time by the adoptive father you looked up to till your first death was probably a hard thing to do. And it wasn't like there were bestselling manuals on how to handle being murdered once, let alone twice.

"I wanted Bruce to prove that he loved me. That I mattered enough for him to actually punish the Joker for once. That there would be some payment for the crime."

Tim could guess what was coming next, but it didn't make it any easier to listen to.

"Instead, he just went back to his cycle of being put in Arkham, breaking out whenever he felt like playing, getting caught on purpose and being put back in."

"He put the Joker in a cast for six months. Even I remember that, from the newspapers." Steph interjected.

Jason just raised an eyebrow. "And he crushed half the bones in my body for shooting the Penguin. Who, by the way, is still alive. I was a pretty good shot _before_ I trained with Roy. If I wanted him dead, he would be. Even if I was shooting a blank." His tone was cold, detached, unfeeling.

"Bruce doesn't need a reason to be violent. That's just who he is. But as I told you, he's not a killer - not without a good cause."

"I captured the Joker, and led B to him. Then I handed him a gun, and levelled one of my own at the Joker's head. He could shoot the Joker, and show me that he didn't actually want to condone the Joker murdering a kid. He could stand by and let me shoot the clown, and show that he didn't have the spine for killing. Which would have sucked, I know, but I would have been mostly fine with that option as well. After all, the Joker would be dead."

Jason pauses, and the shaking returns. "Or he could shoot me. Show that all that mattered was his Mission. And that we were all bodies to be used up in his war. And if he chose that, I was going to blow up the warehouse we were in to kingdom come. If Bruce preferred to have me dead, that's exactly what I would give him."

"He's B, though. He figures a way out of all situations. He chucked a Batarang at my neck, and in my shock, I dropped the remote that would trigger the bombs. The Joker picked it up and blew up the building. B got out. And from what I heard later, he came back later, after the collapse, and pulled the Joker out of the rubble."

Before Steph could say anything, Jason kept on going.

"Thankfully, I died way before being trapped under the rubble. Considering how bad the coffin was for me, that was probably a good thing."

Steph looks at Jason's face, her expression showing the depths of compassion and kindness she is capable of. But then, suddenly, it turned stern.

"Jason, it was not your fault."

"But Steph-"

" _It. Was. Not. Your. Fault._ " Steph seethed, her tone harsh and uncompromising.

She sighed before continuing. "I know you can't believe me now, so I'll repeat it until you do. But I'm sure about it. It was not your fault."

"I was the one who tried to kill the Joker."

"And your father was the one who attacked you and left you to die, for attempting to kill a man who we can agree is the scum of the earth. I'm pretty sure he's the one I want to blame the most for this."

"B only kills when he has to. When there's no other choice. I'm just an impostor carrying his son's body. As far as he's concerned, he's restoring order to the universe by doing that."

And God, that's why he brought up Darkseid, wasn't it? He wanted to show that Bruce wanted to do this.

Tim didn't know if this was just manipulation on Jason's part. If the whole story was a lie concocted to gain Steph's sympathy. But then, when he turned to look to Bruce's face, all he could see was guilt.

_Oh my God. He actually did it._

"At least I managed to walk it off." Jason said, with fake cheer. "He doesn't need to feel any guilt for it."

Steph glared at him, and Jason lowered his head in shame. Yeah, that was probably unnecessary, even if he was unaware of the extra audience. But considering the circumstances, Tim was willing to grant Jason some leeway when it came to being salty about Bruce.

"I think I'm done with talking for a while." Steph remarks. "Let's just sit here for a while."

Jason looked like he was about to protest that, but a pointed look from Steph shut him down. He laid his head on her lap, stretching his legs over the side of the couch. And as her hands moved through his hair like a boat in a choppy sea, the denizens of the Cave tried to grapple with what Jason had just unwittingly revealed to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm of the firm opinion that Bruce has no actual moral opposition to killing. He's just drawn that line out of fear of himself. Thankfully, I've been working on another series ([this one](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857853), sorry for the shameless plug) to write out my ideas on that issue, so I'm not going to clog this piece with my musings on that particular issue. Here, it's just part of the general hypocrisy that Bruce engages in - important, but ultimately not worthy of extended discussion. For me, the Final Crisis stuff was a good way of showing that Bruce can kill - he just needs a good reason and no other options. Also, having Jason die at Bruce's hand in UTRH was a way for me to draw a parallel that even I'll admit is far-fetched, but one that I found interesting. However, here Jason's self-deprecation prevents him from seeing the actual reasoning process that Bruce used to put a Batarang into his neck - and that's going to be discussed soon.
> 
> Next chapter, the Batboys in the cave do the talking.


	4. The Sound of Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Batfamily discusses the most recent revelation about Jason's dealings with Bruce. Both the boys and the girls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The conversation that Bruce has been dreading is finally here. Also, there is an attempt to show how different people have different reactions to the

Damian looked away from the screen as soon as it became apparent that Todd and Brown were not likely to say anything significant for the next few minutes, at least. There was a more critical discussion to be had.

"Father. Why did you attack Todd?"

Father refused to dignify his question with a response.

No matter. Damian was an Al Ghul as well as a Wayne. The stubbornness was built into him, and he would not budge. Father had an obligation to explain his actions.

"Father. I believe you owe us an explanation."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Drake and Grayson trying to recompose themselves. The two of them were evidently unprepared to carry out any serious conversation, but the issue at hand was a serious one. Todd had laid a serious charge on Father, and from what Damian knew of the man, he was not a liar. Besides, the expression on Father's face was all but an admission of guilt.

Still, they needed to know if Todd's conjecture as to the reasons for his murder were correct. He needed to keep his wits about himself and force Father to not skip this discussion. They had been fortunate enough to not have any pressing issues to attend to, and Father _had_ to give his reasons for his brutality and callousness.

Drake and Grayson did not have to worry about Bruce casting them off. They were essential to him, and they had proven their usefulness to him over the years. They had not broken the Rule. And they had built lives of their own outside of Bruce's influence, enabling them to leave him if it was ever a necessity.

Damian was not so fortunate. He was closer to Todd than he would like to admit. While he had stuck to Father's code after being assigned to his care, he could not bring himself to believe in it. And he was afraid of slipping up and giving his father a reason to cast him out or punish him.

But evidently the Rule was not what he had thought it was. If there was no other way, killing was an option, even for Batman. An option that he had used on his own son, the one whose death had caused him so much grief.

He needed to understand why Father had decided that Todd needed to die. If only to understand what he needed to avoid doing to suffer the same fate.

"Father." He will respond at some point. He has to.

"I... didn't know what to do. I didn't want to be a killer. And I didn't want him to become a killer."

Damian looked at the man before him, slumped down into a chair that suddenly seemed too big for him.

"I don't remember much of what I did. I remember wanting Jason to stop... and then he stopped. And then the Joker took the detonator and blew up the place. I don't remember how I got out. And... I didn't want to check if they had lived, but I had to. It's my job. That's how I found the Joker."

Father took a shuddering breath, before speaking again.

"I didn't want to kill him. I _didn't_. I just wanted him to stop. He was... he kept saying that I didn't care about him. But I did. You know that, Dick. I loved him, I did. And you remember how broken I was after he died, don't you Tim? You remember how bad I was getting. But he said I didn't care. He knew I couldn't kill someone for revenge. I can't do it. And he still tried to push me to do it... I just wanted him to stop doing that."

There were tears in Father's eyes, threatening to fall.

Damian took a long, hard look at the man he had idolized for so long, before turning to his brothers to be greeted by an unexpected sight.

Drake and Grayson were still sitting behind them, their faces frozen in terrifying expressions of horror and fear. _They are afraid of Father_ , his mind supplied, as he took in their state and planned the appropriate course of action.

Before he could turn to Father for a more thorough interrogation, Grayson spoke up.

"Did you look for him?"

Father's head snapped towards Dick, his face clearly showing his shock... and guilt. Damian felt his heart sink.

"Ignoring the fact that you _put a Batarang into your son's neck and forgot about it_ , did you even try to find him? Or was getting the Joker good enough for you?"

Father opened his mouth, possibly to reply, but no words came out.

Another obvious admission of guilt.

Drake barked out a disbelieving laugh. "No wonder Jason never wanted to come to us. He came back to life, only for his father to kill him to save the guy who murdered him the first time." He paused, and a grimace crossed his face. "And somehow, you made him believe that that was the right thing to do."

And then, somehow, Drake's tone became even colder than before. "You killed him, and then made him believe he was at fault for it. At least he has Steph there right now to tell him otherwise. How long has he gone berating himself for your mistakes?"

"Was it a mistake?" Grayson asked, his voice unnaturally soft.

Father gave his eldest a pained look, but it seems Grayson was past caring about what Batman thought of him.

"Was it a mistake? Was it a fuck up, or did you actually want Jason dead?"

As cruel as Grayson's words were, Damian was forced to acknowledge that the concerns he brought up were legitimate. The parallel Jason had drawn had been confirmed by Bruce - he had definitely wanted to 'make Jason stop', and despite his comments on how he didn't want to kill him, the rest of his account did give enough signs that he was not averse to using extreme force to make Jason stop. They knew now that he kills when there is no other option, and he had indeed thought that the best choice he had in the scenario was killing Todd.

Except that one of the options available was killing the Joker, and another was to let Todd kill him - and how Bruce had managed to ignore either of those choices was impossible to comprehend.

"No, of course not!" Father replied, sounding affronted and hurt. In a million other scenarios, the interrogation would have stopped there, but not in this one.

"Then what did you mean when you said you wanted him to stop?" Drake pressed.

 _Yes, that is the most important question here_. Because if Father had not intended to kill Jason, his actions were even more troubling, since that meant that his judgement did not deserve the faith Todd was putting in it.

Damian had the feeling that he and the other two Robins in the Cave wanted entirely different answers from Father. While Damian wanted reassurance that Father was acting with full possession of his faculties, Drake and Grayson seemed to want to believe that Father had made an error. Damian could not comprehend why.

Evidently, Father did not have a reply for them.

Before Damian could reel in the interrogation towards more productive grounds that would actually reveal pertinent information instead of distressing everyone, a voice rang out of the Batcomputer.

"Cass." Gordon's voice still contained all the cold steel past the array of modulators. "Did you know?"

Damian turned his head, quickly scanning the room and noticing Cain sitting on the stairs leading from the Cave to the primary kitchen. Her expression was unreadable despite the light shining on it, putting all the contours into sharp relief and making it impossible to hide the slightest twitch. Not everyone could be equally good at reading people.

Cain's reply was emotionlessly delivered.

"Yes."

\---------------------------------

Barbara had only been paying the minimum possible amount of attention to Bruce and his boys spying on Jason and Steph. She was enjoying their shock at the fact that Jason had pretty much kept them out of the important parts of his life. Yes, it was petty and vindictive to want to see the group of entitled brats suffer, but she could enjoy her fair share of schadenfreude. Sue her.

And then Jason spoke of killing, and she found her attention magnetically attracted to the screen, trying to watch Jason and Steph spill secrets meant for each other. In the back of her head, she berated herself for falling to the levels of the Batboys, but that shame was overridden by the importance of what Jason was saying.

Hearing about Darkseid made her want to look through exactly how Jason had found a way to access the information he had his hands on. That was something even she didn't know much of. (She knew some things, she's Oracle after all, but she hadn't actually bothered to dig deeper.)

Hearing Jason talk about his own death, though... that had awoken some emotions she didn't want to feel again.

Fear. Powerlessness. _Rage_.

She remembered wanting to kill the Joker, once. Wanting to make him pay for what he did to her.

Her therapist had taught her how to work through it, the desire for revenge. Taught her to cope with being the way she was now, and make the best of her life. She would show the world that she was not going to stay down.

But she still carried a gun with herself at all times. Bruce probably knew and disapproved, but even he wasn't bullheaded enough to ask her to drop the easiest and most effective means of protection she could have.

Jason hadn't had the benefit of a supportive family to help him get through the trauma he had suffered. He had died, and come back in an ancient order of assassins that manipulated him with truths instead of lies. After all, there's nothing that makes people change sides than knowing that your leader cannot give you the things you need.

Barbara couldn't deny that it hurt to know that the Joker had essentially gone unpunished for crippling her. She had had to rebuild her life from scratch, and he still went on his standard routine of breaking out of Arkham and being put back in.

She wondered if she would have gone Jason's way if she hadn't lost her legs. She didn't want to know.

Jason had gone to Bruce to ask him to kill the monster beneath his bed. And Bruce had turned and killed him instead.

If there was ever a sign that your father doesn't want you, a knife in your neck was probably it.

And somehow, Jason was convinced that Bruce had rationally thought this through and decided to kill his son. The son that he had buried and grieved for, almost to the point of self-destruction.

Barbara wasn't entirely sure he was wrong.

Maybe Bruce had grown too attached to the idea of the son he lost to appreciate the one that came back. Maybe he didn't even see the Jason before him as a human being, preferring to think of him as a zombified perversion of his beloved son. Maybe that's what made it easier for him to try to kill him - it isn't killing if it isn't alive in the first place.

She only paid the minimal amount of attention to the argument sprouting in the Cave as she attempted to grapple with the terrifying idea of Batman being a killer, but still managed to register most of it. It was curious, in a way, how Damian wanted to believe that Bruce had been right in concluding that Jason needed to die, and how the other two wanted him to admit that it was a mistake. In other circumstances, she might have laughed. Or cried. All she could feel now was an all-consuming numbness, and she did not want to let it go. At least not for a while.

And then, she noticed Cass sitting on the stairs, looking down on the boys trying to get their father to talk. She smiled, waiting for her protégé and successor to take her father to task in a way that none of his other children could. Cass could be very scary, when she wanted to.

But Cass did not react.

Barbara was nowhere near as good at reading body language as Cass was, but she had picked up a bit of it. She could see no trace of surprise or anger in Cass' posture. Only sadness, disappointment and resignation.

And that could only mean one thing. That she already knew.

Still, she wasn't going to pull a Bruce and make assumptions without having an actual conversation about the issue at hand.

"Cass. Did you know?" She tried to keep her voice neutral, but couldn't stop the twinge of hurt from getting through. Hopefully, the modulators would cover it.

Cass' expression did not change as she turned her head towards the screen. Her voice was scarily level, too. "Yes."

Barbara tried to stay composed as she with the questions. She could get emotional later. _I'm compartmentalizing like Bruce here_ , she thought. _It's funny, how I became so like him even though I tried to distance myself from the worst parts of him._

"How long have you known?"

"Cannot tell."

Barbara knew it was stupid to get angry at Cass for hiding this, but she wanted answers. Sue her for trying to protect Jason.

"Why?" She supposed that the attempt to appear cold and detached was pointless. This was Cass, who knew her better than anyone else.

"He did not want to tell. He knew... you would get angry."

"Why would we be angry at him? _Bruce_ is the guy we should be angry with. He's the one who killed him." Dick asked, the confusion apparent in his voice.

Cass cocked her head to the side, in a motion reminiscent of Jason in his younger days. He used to do it when he was thinking. 

_Does he still do it now?_ Barbara supposed he did, she didn't know of anyone else in Cass' relatively small circle of acquaintances who did that.

"He did not tell me... like he told Steph. We were sparring. I felt it on his neck. He knew... he cannot lie. So he told the truth. Made me promise... to not tell."

"Why would he not want you to tell anyone else? He's always wanted to show us that Bruce isn't a good guy, and that's the most convincing proof there is." Tim piped in.

"Little Brother thinks we do not want him. That we will hurt him if we know. He is scared. Of Bruce. Does not want to die again."

 _She's never called him Bruce before_ , Barbara thought to herself.

"As much as I want to deny that, Batman of the no-kill Rule did put a Batarang into his neck. There's not much of an argument to be had against that. I wonder how he even brought himself to work with us after that." Tim declared, glumly.

"He said... he does not want pity. Or protection."

And that felt like a kick in the gut, as Barbara realized that that was exactly what she had wanted to offer. To protect Jason from Bruce, and shake her head at the poor hand life had dealt the kid. Even though she spoke loudly against people who reacted that way to her, she had been so willing to coddle Jason.

Jason had needed protection before, when the Joker went after him with a crowbar for an evening of entertainment. He had needed protection when Bruce put a knife into his neck for reasons the great big Bat himself did not understand. But not now.

Now, he needed love and support. He needed someone to tell him that he wasn't what Bruce thought of him. That he didn't need to define himself by the standards of a man who had been needlessly deified by those around him.

And as she looked at Steph holding him, one hand running through his hair as the other massaged his shoulder, she realized that he already had it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went with this angle since it feels unlikely that Jason would be able to hide something that important from Cass, or that he would want to. It also felt appropriate that Cass would be able to gauge what Jason wanted and needed by reading his reactions to her behaviour. Also, it felt appropriate that Damian would be the one who actually took Bruce to task on the issue, since he is the one who wants Bruce to be perfect and has tried the hardest to fall in line.
> 
> I hope I haven't made Barbara too OOC and unlikeable, I don't actually know much about how to write her. I mostly know her from her appearances with Cass, so I'm using the mentor-protégé relationship as a basis. It felt appropriate that she would adopt some of Bruce's bad behaviours because those do not seem very Bruce-specific.


	5. Tell me what you felt when you died

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph talks about dying, and how it affected her. After all, dead is dead, whether it's for six minutes or six months. Cass tries to grapple with why she didn't see what had happened to Steph when she did see it in Jason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if the canon says whether Steph actually died or not. I'm going with being resuscitated after having flatlined for a few minutes.

As silence descended onto the Cave, the six occupants looked at each other and the scene in Jason's house. Cass knew it was nowhere close to the end of the discussion they needed to have on the subject of the pain Dad had caused Jason, but it seemed that nobody actually knew what to say next.

Correction - it seemed that nobody knew what to say to _win_ the discussion. The family was evidently too used to treating every issue as if it were a fight with a mugger at 4 AM.

Fortunately, Cass had learned to be better than that. The hard way.

She shook her head, looking back to the loving couple on the screen. Looking at how Jason has nuzzled into Steph's lap, she told herself to find some small consolation in the fact that this, at least, was a scene that needed no interpretation for those not as well-trained as her in understanding body language. Although given the emotional ineptitude of the four boys before her, there was a chance that they would manage to draw all the wrong conclusions from something as obviously healthy and _good_ as that.

Steph tilted her head down towards Jason, her expression both loving and clouded with doubt. She softly tapped his shoulder to get his attention, and Jason opened his eyes and looked right at her.

"'Sup, Blondie?"

"I had a question." Steph says, softly. Cass knows Steph, and she knows that it's unnatural for Steph to sound like this, to be like this. This is serious.

"When you died... both times... do you remember anything?"

Cass feels a chill rise up her spine. She doesn't want to hear what Jason has to say on _that_ subject.

"You asking if I remember an 'other side'? If I saw the pearly gates or the pits of Tartarus? Which, by the way, do exist. It's where Trigon is."

"That's not what I'm asking you. I'm asking if you remember anything from being dead."

"Nah, Blondie. I don't. One moment I was choking on smoke in that fucking warehouse, and another I was waking up in my coffin."

This time, Cass felt the temperature of the whole room drop.

From what Cass knew of Western customs for taking care of the dead, she knew that the dead are put in a box - _coffin_ , she remembered, from a night spent reading with Jason and Barbara - and the box is then put inside a hole in the earth. After that, people dump dirt back over the box to cover it, and they put a slab to mark it. She had seen a few of them - the stone slabs marking where the bodies are, that is. They bore the names of the people buried there. She noticed that people often stayed away from where the bodies were, and sometimes they talked to the stones which had the names written on them. Those places, where the dead lay buried - they were called _graves_ , she recalled. She'd seen Thomas and Martha Wayne's graves when Dad took her there to talk about why he does what he does. And Jason Todd's, from the time when Batman wanted to warn her about what she could become if she didn't follow the rules.

And Jason said he woke up inside his coffin. That sounded... terrifying.

She wondered when it had happened. If by the time she had gone to see his grave, he had already left it. Maybe that was why all the things Batman had told her on that day sounded so hollow - because they were just not _right_.

"I thought you were brought back by a Lazarus Pit. Same as Cass. And the Al Ghul brood." Steph said, her voice low. Cass could see the trembling in her, radiating _fear-pain-sadness_.

"I was brought back to functioning human condition by a Lazarus Pit, yes. But that's not what brought me back to life."

Jason pauses, and Cass saw how he shrank into himself as if he was trying to hide.

"I don't know when I came back. What I do know is that about a year and a half after my death, Talia's agents in Gotham found me roaming on the streets. They took me in and then scrubbed records of people who had seen me, the oldest of which went back to about eight months after my death. I was under Ra's and Talia's care for about another year, during which I was pretty much catatonic. I could move when told to, could fight on muscle memory - after all, that's how I'd stayed alive on the streets of Gotham, and could eat when given food, but I couldn't talk or act of my own volition. After not improving much under Talia's care, Ra's decided I was not worth the effort and decided to dispose of me." Cass heard an audible gasp from Damian and Dad. "Talia couldn't have that - she was convinced I could be saved, since I had improved a bit under her, and I always responded when she spoke of Bruce. Apparently, I spoke only two words in my time as a mindless husk, and they were 'Bruce' and 'Dad'." Jason's face twisted into an expression of extreme displeasure - a _grimace_ , her mind supplied - and she could bet that Dad had the same look on his face. "She decided to dump me into the pit while Ra's was in it. That's what gave me back my mental faculties. In exchange for a few servings of Pit Madness." 

"And the second time?"

"I remember the building falling on me, and how it felt like being inside that _fucking_ box again. Except that this time, I couldn't dig through the slab above me. All the fingernails in the world can't exactly cut through concrete. I remember feeling woozy and then deciding to just... lay down and die."

Cass could feel her Dad flinch next to her, even though she didn't see it.

"After all, Bruce had already chosen the Joker, there was no point in me living anymore, was there?" He ignored Steph bristling over his head and kept going. "He wanted me gone, and the wound in my neck was proof that he didn't think I was supposed to be alive in the first place. So I just... decided to give him what he wanted."

"I just... went to sleep, and woke up on a bed with Talia next to me, doing the whole 'I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed' shtick. They said they found me a few hours after the building collapse, through some of her agents. I had been dead for a week or so, and Talia ignored my instructions for her to cremate me because of some bullshit about having 'faith in my will'. She, uh... nursed me back to health. And I decided to stop fighting for proof of Bruce's affection. I already had a parent who would do anything for me, I didn't need another."

Cass knew that was an understatement. She had seen Jason and Talia together, she knew they would both die and kill for each other.

And looking at the anger on her father's face, it was clear that Jason had been right about what would happen if he got to know about his relationship with Talia.

"But no, I don't remember what happened in those gaps. That doesn't rule out that something didn't happen to us."

Wait. _Us?_

"Who said anything about an 'us'?" Steph asked, using false confidence trying to hide the fear and worry.

"I can see it on your face, Blondie. Just like I can see it on Cass, Dick and the Demon Brat."

"...It was just for six minutes."

"Doesn't matter if it was six minutes or six months, dead is dead."

Cass tried to not feel angry at Steph. She really did. But it wasn't working.

Thankfully, Jason voiced the questions in their heads.

"I'm guessing this was thanks to Black Mask?" Steph nodded wordlessly.

"And Doc hid the fact that she managed to resuscitate you?" Another nod.

"What did it feel like?"

Steph's mouth twitched, as she struggled to speak. "I don't know if I was gone for six minutes or six months." Her voice trembled like her body, and Jason raised a hand to hold her shoulder and massage it gently.

"I mean, I knew I was dead and not unconscious. Not just because Leslie told me later, but because I remember... laying down and waiting to die, as you said it." Steph laughed, but it was wet and sad and painful to listen to. "I remember thinking that Bruce would be so disappointed... then wondering why I was bothered by his reaction. He wasn't my Dad... he shouldn't have mattered."

Jason sat back up and put an arm around Steph.

"That's because Bruce encourages that kind of dependence. He's been trained by the League of Assassins, by Ra's Al Ghul himself. He knows how to manipulate people better than anyone else in the world - that's how he keeps the Justice League in hand. You needed him back then because he wanted you to need him, that's how Robins are supposed to work. Hell, that's how the entire brood of Bats is supposed to work."

He lifted her chin up and turned her head towards himself.

"I'm just glad you got out of that. Between Cass and Babs, you have a better set of role models there. You don't need Bruce anymore."

And as Steph curled into Jason's shirt in a curious reversal of what happened only a little while ago, Cass felt a surge of pride.

Because this meant that despite her father's flaws, Steph had turned out just fine. As a vigilante, as a friend, as _family_.

As Steph's sobs died down, and the couple went back to sitting next to each other without being completely intertwined, a slow smile crossed Steph's face.

"I didn't think us talking would get this serious."

Jason laughed. "We're the dead Robins. It was bound to get like this."

Steph picked up the remote to the TV. "Ready for another season of RWBY?"

"Please tell me they got an actual budget for this season... some of that animation was really janky. I only gave it a pass because it was the pilot season, I'm expecting things to look at least halfway decent here."

"Well, I can promise they look decent, but you'll have to wait a bit if you want AAA-levels of production value. Till then, enjoy all the female empowerment."

"Only if I get to loudly call out all the literary references again."

"Deal." Steph said, a blinding smile stretching across her face.

Jason leaned in to kiss her and snatched the remote out of her hand while their lips locked. Cass could clearly see the emotions of _love-protect-need_ in their posture, and she wished them luck in holding onto this forever.

And when she noticed Bruce Wayne stirring next to them, a determination in his posture that hadn't been present before, she decided to step in now before he did something stupid.

Dad did love his children, but he was always doing stupid things to them. Not always bad, but still, stupid and unnecessary.

"Dad." She stepped in front of him, partially obscuring his view of the screen. They needed to have this talk now. "Don't."

He seemed like he was going to ask how she could know what he was going to do, but then stopped, probably realizing who he was talking to. He sighed, almost as if he knew better and was revealing something others could not understand. "Cassandra, the two of them-"

"No."

Bruce seemed like he wanted to speak, but Cass decided to stop him from even thinking anything stupid for very long.

"They are... good for each other. You can see. Don't hurt them... for control. You don't need to."

Before Bruce could say anything, Barbara joined in.

"Yep, she said it better than any of us could ever have. Don't do it, Bruce. Just don't. They have a good thing going there, and they don't need you to ruin it. They deserve better. I know it's a foregone conclusion that you aren't going to stop being a creepy spy for the rest of the night, but at least don't be a completely awful dad to the one kid of yours who shouldn't have to deal with any more of your shit."

"Two. Two kids."

"Yeah, point taken. The two kids who don't deserve your paranoid ass ruining their lives. Stop while you're still in the safe zone, B. Because if you hurt them, I won't forgive you. And I'm sure Cass won't, either."

Cass nodded, slowly. Bruce needed to understand this.

Bruce looked like he was going to deny what the girls had accused him of planning, but one raised eyebrow from Cass stopped him. He settled back down into his chair, focusing on the screen again. Cass ignored the pointed states she was getting from her three brothers in the Cave - some shocked, some amused. She turned back to the screen, and soon the only sounds present were those of Jason, Steph and their TV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want this story to revolve entirely around Jason - I want to be able to talk about Steph and her issues as well. (I'm not sure that worked out for this chapter, but I'm going to keep trying.) I'll admit that I'm not as well-acquainted with Steph as I am with Jason or Cass (my two favourite characters in DC) but I've been trying to cover my bases on that. I hope this isn't too OOC.
> 
> Also, my job is starting in a week or so, so I'll probably have less time to write. Updates to this might become less frequent since I would only have half a day of procrastinating to come up with chapters. I don't have access to my meds when I'm at home, so my productivity is really low. I'm eagerly waiting for Covid-19 to die down so I can move out of my parents' house and get some privacy and autonomy.


	6. Okay, I have several questions...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Steph talk about why the wayward son of the Wayne brood has access to the highest level of classified information. And another can of worms gets opened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter explores why Bruce trusts Jason with his biggest secrets. And what that says about their relationship. Dick has some thoughts on that whole issue.
> 
> A note about my visualization and usage of the canon here - it's a fusion of New and Prime Earth continuities. I like pieces of both, so I decided to go with both being part of this universe's canon.

As the end credits rolled across the TV screen, Steph turned to Jason with an expectant look on her face.

"So... your thoughts?"

Jason's face scrunched up in thought. Dick could clearly see the kid who had tried to persuade him to read _Persuasion_ and attempted to extol the virtues of reading Austen. Dick loved his brother, he _did_ , but he couldn't really bring himself to read what to him was walls of convoluted prose that lost him before he hit the tenth page.

"I'm surprised, how blatant the fairy tale allusions are. Wizard of Ozpin, Glynda the Goodwitch, the whole of team JNPR... they went all out, eh?"

"...Yeah, I'm not surprised you didn't have to look any of that up like us mere mortals."

"Don't sweat it, I've read my share of mythology as well. The references are pretty fun, especially with the whole genderswapped team. That's a pretty deep cut." Jason laid his head back on the couch, glass in hand. His legs landed on the table with a thump, dangerously close to the bottle placed precariously close to the edge but ultimately missing it entirely. "I'm guessing the next season goes dark?"

"You guessed correctly. And please stop thinking about what happens next, I want you to feel _some_ emotion when the things happen so that you can feel my pain and let me enjoy your suffering."

"Don't worry, spoilers don't really work like that for me. I still cry every time I read Macduff's 'feel it like a man' speech."

Steph's confused look said it all.

"Mac-the Scottish Play. And we're going to do that next. As thanks for showing me such a surprisingly good show, I'm going to introduce you to the world of _good_ art. The pool that everyone draws from when they want critical acclaim. We'll start with the Scottish Play, after I finish my drink. Even better, I'll show you a couple of adaptations you wouldn't have thought were possible, but are _soooooo_ good. Talia introduced me to them, and I am _so_ glad that she did."

Steph raised an eyebrow at Jason.

"I'm serious. You'll like it. I'm sure. About 55% sure."

Steph's eyebrow rose even further.

"Look, if you don't like it, we can go back to RWBY and you can laugh at me crying at the death of some character I've undoubtedly grown unreasonably attached to."

Steph shrugged her shoulders and cocked her head to the side, as if she was trying to solve a complex puzzle. Jason sent her a questioning look, and Dick marvelled at how good they were at communicating with each other.

"You drunk enough to tell me why you know Bruce's secrets?"

"No, but I guess I'll do that anyway."

Steph moved into a more comfortable position, so as to be able to look at Jason and reach out to comfort him if need be. Dick wanted to feel angry at the fact that she got to have something that he didn't, despite having been Jason's brother for so much longer. He knew it was a stupid thought, but it had been a stressful day, surely he was allowed some stupid, petty, vengeful thoughts? They were harmless, weren't they? No problem at all.

"Me and Bruce... didn't really manage to reconnect after I died. Yeah, I know, shocker, but things never really improved despite efforts on both sides - yes, I can be perceptive and graceful enough to acknowledge that there were efforts on both sides. Maybe more on his than on mine."

Dick was proud of his brother's ability to perceive and acknowledge that Bruce had made efforts to reach out to him. That was a good sign, right?

"But on the issues that mattered, neither of us was willing to give ground. He was willing to treat me like a human being instead of pond scum, which I guess was good, but he never actually treated me like a son. There was too little common ground for that."

Dick didn't know why any common ground was considered necessary for familial relationships. Your family was your family, whether you loved them or hated them, right?

"When I went on a universe-hopping adventure with Kyle and Donna to save the fabric of the multiverse, I ended up on an Earth where Bruce did end up killing the Joker after I died. Earth-51, if memory serves. He... took me under his wing. Gave me Tim's uniform, his world's Red Robin suit."

Dick felt Tim stiffen next to him. It was understandable, Red Robin was _his_.

"I took it when I was there and stood alongside that version of Bruce. I was thinking of just... staying there, you know. Kyle and Donna would go back home after we finished the mission, but I would have stayed."

"So why didn't you?" Steph asked.

Jason's eyes clouded over as he struggles to reply. "Ultraman. From Earth-3. He... killed Bruce."

Dick noticed that Jason's lip starts trembling.

"One of my biggest regrets is not gutting that asshole then and there. I should have, but I didn't. And I never got a chance to get that close again."

Dick wonders how Jason could have gone up against a Kryptonian. Then again, Jason was the one guy who wouldn't be stopped by any small inconveniences like having an invulnerable opponent.

"A lot of shit happened later, including me killing the Joker on Earth-3, but the important part is that when Bruce died, he left his high-level clearances to me. And it turns out, clearances across time, space and universes all apply. Batman has protocols for that, with only a couple exceptions, such as the Owlman guy and that one Batman who is also doing a Joker impression."

Ignoring the terrifying idea of a _Batman who is also doing a Joker impression_ , Dick had an instinctive reaction to cover the security breach, then wondered why he had that reaction to Jason knowing about their family. Had he already started viewing Jason as an outsider?

"There's probably a million other Batmans - Batmen? - who will need instant access to the Batcave if they land up here, and Bruce made the call that the loss due to a bad Batman getting in was not as bad as the one due to a good Batman getting locked out. Exceptions are entered manually, and I don't think there are that many of them. After all, most universes keep to themselves. Even the Thomas Wayne Batman hasn't been excluded, despite how much Bruce hates having the Batman kill."

Dick didn't think that jibe was entirely warranted, the point had been made already, but that wasn't a big concern. Jason could be as salty as he wanted if it helped.

"By the way, you know what the first think I checked with my new clearance was? If Bruce had actually killed me in this universe."

Wait, what was that about?

"Because after my old universe merged into this one, I didn't know exactly what details had changed. And I wanted to validate my anger at Bruce. So I checked the cowl footage."

Jason looks like he's on the verge of bursting into tears.

"I was relieved to see that he'd actually thrown it at my neck here. Relieved. At the fact that my dad decided to kill me. How fucked up is that?"

Steph shifted a bit closer to Jason, and the six-foot-tall heavy-set vigilante nearly jumped into the arms of the relatively smaller woman in front of him. His gasping tears nearly wrung some out of Dick's eyes as well.

After a few minutes, Jason raised his head back up, and smiled weakly.

"This is not how I pictured tonight going." His voice still sounded close to cracking under the weight of his emotions.

"Neither did I, but that's where this ended up, and I'm not entirely sorry. I needed to hear this, and you needed to tell me." Steph's voice sounds calm, but Dick can tell that she is somewhat overwhelmed by this as well.

"Yeah, I think I did. I can stop if you want."

"Same thing applies. I need to hear this, and you need to say it. We have time to pick ourselves back up. We can call off patrol for a few more days, the others won't push if I tell Cass and Babs to lay it off."

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Going back to point... my clearance."

Steph shifted, her brows furrowing as she focused in on Jason.

"Bruce found out, a bit later. We decided to have a talk. He told me that he was willing to let me keep my elevated clearance since I had shown that I was somewhat trustworthy despite being his enemy. His enemy... as if I wasn't his son. One thing led to another, and we were stuck in another argument. We were probably one insult away from the punches segment of our usual conversations when he proposed a deal. I keep my clearance, and I stop trying to 'impersonate his son'."

And for the umpteenth time, Dick felt a cold sensation gather in his gut.

"Impersonate his son?" Steph sounded incredulous.

"His words, not mine. It hurt, but I took the deal. If I could get more info and resources and keep my operation afloat, it was worth it."

"Yeah, at the cost of letting Bruce believe in a pretty harmful delusion. Not to mention losing your right to a family you should always have had."

"By that point, I'd gotten used to being mourned while standing right in front of him."

Dick glanced over to the monument to the fallen Robin, that stood in a prominent spot in the Cave. He wondered what it would feel like to see a bloodied Nightwing costume every time he came to the Cave. He wasn't sure if he could take it longer than a week. He was sure Damian would have lost it on the second viewing.

 _Jason's been doing this for years_ , he thought. He wondered if Bruce had managed to make his delusion a reality at this point.

"You do know you matter, right?" Steph asks, quietly.

"Not to him. And I know that shouldn't be important, but... he was my dad. He wasn't perfect, but he was the best parent I had had until that point. He gave me a home, a place at his table, Alfred... I owe him everything. I wanted to believe that he loved me, that he did all of that because he cared, that it was more than just charity. Guess I was wrong."

Dick wants to deny it, to yell at Jason and shake his shoulders till he realized how much Bruce grieved him. He had seen his mentor fall apart after losing his second son.

"From what I know, Bruce fell apart after you died." Steph was getting pretty good at asking the questions he was thinking of. He was sure that the rest of them could attest to the same. Okay, maybe not Bruce, but still.

"Catherine loved me too. And I still had to watch her kill herself with heroin over the course of years. Only to later realize that maybe that was better than dying of untreated cancer."

Dick was sure everyone listening flinched back at that. At least, Steph did.

"Sometimes, loving someone doesn't stop you from doing shit that hurts them. Maybe Bruce does give a shit, maybe he doesn't. What matters is that he decided that I wasn't worth the effort of giving up his moral high ground."

Jason made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry. It was wet and harsh and painful to listen to. Dick decided that he would be immensely happy if he didn't hear it ever again.

"I've never been good enough for that. Not for Willis, not for Catherine, not for Sheila, not for Bruce. And the one parent who has actually put me above obligations like that is someone I can only be around if I leave Gotham."

"You don't need to be good enough for him."

Jason didn't respond to that.

"You're good enough for me. Will that be enough?"

Jason looked up at Steph, but his body seemed to be shrinking into itself. Steph reached out to grab his arm.

"Look around."

Steph shifted closer to Jason, her expression firm but still betraying the turmoil inside her. Dick hadn't seen Steph adopt this kind of attitude before, she was almost always pretty expressive.

"Look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now. We found each other, let that be enough for us."

Steph put her hand on Jason's jaw, tilting it to face her head-on.

"Can that be enough for you?"

Jason nods and nestles into Steph's side in a motion that surprises Dick again despite how often he has seen it in the past few hours.

\---------------------------------

Dick was about to start an argument with Bruce about how he had mistreated his brother when Jason decides to drop a few more bombshells. Evidently the universe was intent on not giving any of them a break from the one thing they could not handle properly.

"You know, Bruce wanted to leave Batman to me even after that shitshow."

Wait... what?

"In the message he left to me after he died... he spoke of how he wanted me to take therapy so that I could rid myself of the 'infection' inside me and become 'normal'."

"That is so wrong on so many levels, I don't even want to touch that." Dick agreed with Steph here.

"He said... that I had the resolve to be Batman. But he wasn't sure if I would stick to the code for his sake. He could 'tarnish the mantle with bloodshed'."

"In retrospect, that does sound like bullshit." Clearly Steph wasn't going to go soft on Bruce here.

"When he came back and found me in Arkham, he told me that I could leave if _he_ deemed me sane. And when I asked him what basis he had for vetoing me for agreeing with the idea of killing criminals, he refused to dignify my question with a response. After all, leaving a guy with his murderer is justified if it makes you feel better about yourself. Although the blame for that one is on Dick."

"Why would you be - did he just leave you next to the Joker?"

Jason laughed, but Dick can't find a trace of humour in it. "No, not next to! Below. That makes it okay, right? After all, I clearly deserved it, I hurt the siblings he likes."

Dick couldn't really deny that the injuries to Tim and Damian were a part of the decision, but he doesn't know why he feels ashamed of it now. It had been the right call, right?

"Did he even come to see you?" Steph sounded angry. 

"Nah, why would he do that? I'm not the sibling he likes."

Dick wanted to say that that was uncalled for, but he did know that he'd failed Jason a lot over the years. He wanted to believe that there was still forgiveness for him since he was forgiving Jason for murdering people and attempting to murder many more, but those arguments were becoming less tenable now.

After all, when the Batman has ~~tried to~~ _actually killed_ his son and has no defense for his actions, all arguments about murder tended to feel obsolete.

Steph had clearly caught onto an important point. "Speaking of Dick... you know how he was Batman, right? How did he not know about any of the shit you told me?"

"Dick got access to Batman's secrets. Not Bruce's."

"What does that mean?"

"Dick didn't succeed Bruce as part of an actual succession plan. He just got himself elevated to Batman-level clearance because Bruce was MIA and the computer has plans for that in place for the second-in-command to take over. Their identity is not really important, the Batcomputer just lets them access everything Batman needs to know."

Jason smirked, and it was the first genuine smile he'd had in a while. It didn't really inspire confidence - rather, it was pretty ominous.

"Bruce's clearance level had the secrets he wanted to hide."

Jason looked straight at the bottle on the table. His glass was empty. "The Bruce on Earth-51 had nothing that he wanted to hide from future Bat-successors and an actual succession plan. Something our Bruce will never have, because Batman, as far as he's concerned, is _his_. Always has been, always will be. He can't let it go the way of Robin, not really. I don't think his ego can take the hit."

Dick could attest to that being true. He hadn't really received any real gratitude for his time as Batman.

Dick wondered what Jason's Batman would have been like if Bruce hadn't been as hypocritical. He wasn't stupid enough to deny the effectiveness of Jason's methods of justice - he could see the improvements in Crime Alley for himself. He was a police officer, and he knew how much victims needed the kind of safety Jason was offering.

But would Jason have given up killing for Bruce's sake if he could have kept his pride in check?

Dick knew that that was a question that would never have an answer, but he kept turning it over in his head anyway.

Dick turned to Bruce again, trying to remember the argument he wanted to use to tear into Bruce, but found nothing.

After all, there was the saying about stones and people in glass houses, and Dick had definitely started noticing the fragility and openness of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted Bruce to acknowledge that Jason is worth working with, at the very least. And that he can't really order him around like he orders the rest. Jason's his equal, the rest are his subordinates.
> 
> I wanted to get and the next chapter out on or before Jason's birthday, but other commitments got in the way. I might be writing a separate fic for the @fyeahjaysteph August prompt, and hopefully, it will be written before August ends.
> 
> Also, I'm ~~not~~ sorry for the crude Hamilton references. I can't help it.
> 
> If anyone's wondering, the unconventional adaptations of Macbeth I'm referring to are Akira Kurosawa's _Throne of Blood_ and Vishaj Bharadwaj's _Maqbool_. (In fact, Bharadwaj's whole Shakespeare trilogy is actually really good. As someone who has seen too much of shitty Bollywood, it was a pleasant surprise.)


	7. On the subject of manipulation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph discusses Tim's manipulative and controlling tendencies, how they parallel Bruce's behaviour. Tim is not pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not sure about this chapter. I've read through it a few times, and I think I got it right, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm more used to being manipulated and used by parents than by partners. (Mostly because I've never had a partner but have had two shitty parents out of two, but the point still stands.)

As Steph and Jason turned on the TV and put on another season of the strange show they were watching, Tim wondered if he was going to be lucky enough to be spared in the couple's ongoing emotional unloading session.

As far as he recalled, Jason seemed pretty apologetic about having come at Tim in his eagerness to get at Bruce. While he couldn't deny that it had been a legitimate strategy that he himself would have adopted in the older Robin's shoes, he was also aware of how unfair it was.

After all, Bruce was the one who had misled the entire family into keeping Jason at arm's length. They weren't at fault here.

Tim wondered if Bruce even realized how he had hamstrung all their relationships with Jason by acting the way he had. There was no way they could blame Jason for being a killer - after all, if Bruce had attempted to murder his own son, for whatever cause, anyone was fair game. The whole point of Bruce's code was that it was absolute - if a man like him decided that he now got to make calls on who lived and died, then the rest was just a matter of chance and perspective.

And there was the small matter of Bruce choosing to hurt his _own goddamn son_ over the Joker. Even if they were to grant Bruce the power to decide who lives and dies, a decision like that was surely a good enough reason to take that power away.

Cass, somehow, was the only one who had been spared in the shitshow they were in. She had already known of Bruce's crimes against Jason and had come to terms with her own idea of their code. After all, she had explicitly sworn allegiance to the Bat-symbol, _not_ the Batman.

Tim was self-aware enough to know that the rest of them did not have a moral compass that strong. Everyone else in the family only adhered to the code as a symbol of allegiance to Bruce. After all, he was the head of the family, and their loyalty was to him.

Wasn't it?

Cass was strong enough to make it on her own, but the rest of them _needed_ Bruce to lead them. They were not his sidekicks - hell, even Robin was barely Batman's sidekick these days - but they were still his _soldiers_.

Tim looked to Jason's memorial, off to the side.

 _A Good Soldier_.

Soldiers are no longer useful if they disobey orders.

Tim tried to evaluate what it would take to restore Bruce's credibility among the family. After all, a leader needs to be seen as above the common rabble. Having him debased in this fashion wouldn't do. They needed to remove the stain on his record, reestablish his superior status.

They needed to have their father back in power.

Tim was aware that it wasn't possible to fake the entirety of Bruce's return to grace. He needed to give a genuine apology to Jason so that the fallen Robin would accept it and come back into the fold. Then, they could use his attachment to Stephanie to get her back, and the show of faith there would make the rest believe that Bruce had changed.

Of course, they would also need to go over what exactly had made Bruce go off the rails, and find a way to stop it from happening again. They couldn't have the Batman going around killing - Bruce, for all his faults, had got that right. Batman's no-kill rule was what gave him credibility, and his approach to rehabilitation gained him favour in the law enforcement community. They couldn't just let go of that.

Probably a few months of intense therapy for Bruce, while Dick took the uniform. Making overtures to Jason, trying to appear to be kind and understanding brothers and using the information they gained here to their advantage, Probably some help from Barbara or Cassandra in trying to get Stephanie on board as well.

Tim was pretty satisfied with the plan. It would work, and the family would be together again.

\---------------------------------

This was not going to work.

Once Steph and Jason were done watching that strange magical girl anime show with frankly weird but cool weapons, she turned to face her... _boyfriend_. (Tim had no idea why Steph and Jason being in a relationship made him uncomfortable. The surprise should have passed by now.)

"Well, that was fun, wasn't it?"

Jason had tears in his eyes.

"Fuck you too, Blondie."

"I thought you said you saw it coming."

"Of _course_ I saw it coming! Why do you think I'm crying?"

Steph did not reply, merely raising an eyebrow instead.

"Tragedies work best when you can see them coming and don't want them to. Honestly, given that her name was _Pyrrha_ , what else would you expect?"

Jason frowned, his expression turning contemplative and his eyes focusing on the middle distance.

"Although given that she died, and that her memory will probably push Jaune to become a great and powerful warrior, shouldn't she have been a derivative of Patroclus? These metaphors are getting pretty muddled here."

"Don't ruin it. Please." In any other circumstance, Steph's pleading tone and mortified expression would have left Tim in stitches, but right now, he was only processing half the events he saw on screen.

"Okay, I won't. After all, I'm crying too." Jason wiped a tear from his eye. "I have to say, the showrunner is _good_ at manipulating the audience's emotions."

"Thankfully, we're Bats."

"Yeah. We've had enough of that from Bruce."

"Yeah."

Steph's expression crumbled into melancholy, and Jason shifted a bit closer to her.

"Bruce and Tim."

Tim's thoughts stopped and then rebooted with a single idea. _Why is she calling me manipulative? What have I done now?_

Steph grimaced bitterly. "You have to admit, he's the perfect Robin in that regard."

"Don't tell the Demon Brat that. He's going to get pissed at the humiliation, and then he'll end up ruining himself to compensate."

Steph smiled, but it was brief. "I don't think he'll be that pissed. He's got enough of normal human morality to understand why that's wrong." She frowned. "Right?"

Jason shrugged. "I don't know, he has Batman for a dad and Tim Drake for a rival he needs to surpass and grind into the dust in every possible way. And you know he wants to conclusively prove that he's a better Robin than Baby Bird."

Tim was confused. Why did they think the ability to manipulate people was a bad trait to have? It was how he had survived so far. It was the one good thing he had learned from Janet Drake, and it had led to him surviving the machinations of Ra's al Ghul himself. How else were you supposed to do that?

It was how he would put the family back together. Why was that a bad thing?

"Tim's the best successor for the superhero Batman, in that regard. He's the only one who can be cold enough to do the part of the job that makes everyone hate you."

"That's cold, Blondie."

"It's also true. They're both the same - rich kids trying to control their lives, and the lives of everyone else around them."

Jason expression somehow becomes even softer.

_And why is that okay? He's changing his expression to make her feel comfortable, I'm feeding people information to make them do the right thing. Isn't that the same?_

"You know, Tim never told me who he was for a long, long time. We were in a relationship, and I never knew who my boyfriend was. I had a baby, carried it to term and gave it up for adoption, and I did it because a boy in a mask told me it was the right thing to do. I only got to know his identity because Batman was trying to use me to get to Tim."

_And that was the right thing to do. You needed to give up the baby, you couldn't be a vigilante without it._

"He said that I couldn't be a vigilante and have a baby. And later, Bruce said that I couldn't be a vigilante because I was, for some imagined reason, inherently inferior to everyone else. Almost as if they wanted my career to run on their terms alone."

That wasn't what Tim had been doing. It had been about proving to Bruce that he wouldn't just cave to his demands. Steph didn't figure into it anywhere.

"I became Robin, trained under Bruce, fought at his side, only to die in the fucking uniform, just to prove to Bruce that I wasn't some subpar replacement for Tim Drake that he had picked up just to spite the kid who refused to grovel at his feet. And then he decided to go and use my death to add to his fucking man-pain."

"And he didn't even try to find out the poorly-concealed fact that you were alive, because he needed your death to be the backbone of the stupid, self-serving guilt-trip he was going to use to live with himself."

"And as a bonus, he could make Tim suffer the same way."

"I'm both an incapable crime-fighter who should remain off the streets so that I don't get in over my head, and I'm also too violent with criminals like the other failed Robin. Just like how Bruce wailed on you back when you shot the Penguin - he came after you because you're just a criminal who needs to be punished by the law and divorced from him completely, and he beat the shit out of you because you're also his son that needs to be disciplined by him to make sure you stay in line."

"And the only reason both apply is that both lead to the same consequence - for you, that was you not being a hero anymore, and for me, it was getting pummelled into the dirt for Batman to deal with a bad breakup. It's almost as if they're not detectives, but a bunch of emotionally volatile assholes who take the credit for their tech doing the work." Jason was clearly not going to be on their side here. Tim decided to keep that in mind for his future plans.

"Don't tell them that. They might take it personally."

"I wasn't going to, but now that you mention it, it might be fun to see their reaction to-"

"No, Jason. No."

Jason opened his mouth, but was cut off immediately.

"I. Said. No."

"Okay, I won't. I won't." He raised his arms in surrender for effect.

"Good."

Steph took a deep breath, before proceeding.

"That's why my relationship with Tim broke went the way it did. I wanted him to treat me as an equal who deserved respect, but he couldn't bring himself to actually do that. And Bruce, for all his grand gestures of acceptance, never really thought of me as a worthy crimefighter - I could always see it in him."

Then, a quizzical expression crossed her face, and she laughed.

"It's funny. Cass treats me as an equal - Cassandra "The One Who Is All" Cain-Wayne, the best fighter in the world, treats me with more respect than Tim and Bruce ever did. Even Babs has that somewhat doubting attitude to herself - although given that she didn't actually know me before forming an opinion and holding to it for years, she has an excuse."

Jason looked unimpressed. "She has an excuse for making invalid assumptions about you?"

"Firstly, she's the OG Batgirl, and she does get to have opinions over who gets her legacy. And I can't imagine there exists a way of fairly comparing me to Cass. Secondly, she's Oracle, it's essentially her job to theorize and make connections based on nearly incomplete data. I can't blame her for that. Bruce made sure to twist both of our legacies to suit himself, and it's driven what everyone else thinks of us."

Tim was pretty sure she was wrong there. Steph's fake death was merely a small part of what he thought of her.

Although he couldn't deny that her death was the basis of a lot of the other opinions he had about her.

But then again, her fake death was the biggest event in her life, so that was okay, wasn't it?

"That's why I like you, you know."

Jason perks up at that.

"You don't judge me. You do have harsh opinions about people, and you hold onto them firmly, but you almost always give people a fair shot at establishing their worth."

"Almost always?"

"Tim."

"Ah. Point taken."

A pained expression crossed Jason's face.

"I'm not going to say it's okay - because it isn't. You went after a kid for no good reason."

"No, there was a reason. I'll admit to going too far, but there was a good reason at the start."

"And what might that be?"

"I wanted to prove that I was better than him."

"That's not a good reason. Firstly, a pissing contest shouldn't be good enough for you to assault someone nearly to death."

Jason tried to pop in with a denial, but Steph wasn't giving him an inch.

"Zip it, you know it's a shit reason. And second, being good doesn't count for jack shit when you're Robin - all that matters is that the hero community thinks you're cute enough and pitiful enough for sympathy. If you're a stereotypical obedient kid with occasional bouts of sadness because of the horrible horrible condition of being too proud to ask for help, then you're the perfect Robin, and everyone will like you. They might hate you at some points because you pulled a Batman, but overall, they'll do anything for you."

Jason froze. Tim was pretty sure everyone else listening had frozen too.

"We were never going to be good Robins. We were never going to take pity, and we were always going to do what we thought was right. No matter the cost."

Steph gnashed her teeth together, her face going blank as she gave a thousand-yard stare. She looked straight at one of the cameras, and if Tim didn't know any better, he would have said she was staring into his soul.

"People like that, they're never any good alive. They're only useful when they're dead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is not terrible. I'm also sorry about the time it took to publish this, work is killing all the free time I used to waste. I'm hoping to get onto a more normal writing schedule, once I get a handle on things.


	8. What comes next?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph and Jason take a moment to wonder what their future looks like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Steph and Jason are the only ones with enough of an understanding of what Gotham is actually like to know what the future holds for them. So this is my attempt to work out what that conversation might look like.
> 
> Also, I finally bit the bullet and wrote the chapter in VSCode, which was _so_ much better than writing in AO3's chapter edit interface. I'm holding out my hopes for an API that lets me write drafts from my end and post them to my account. Would make the process a million times easier.

Barbara let herself lean back into her chair as Steph turned to the television and picked up the remote. She let some of the tension bleed out of her muscles, as she tried to reorient herself.

"Let's get back to happier stuff. We both need it."

Jason scoffed.

"That's _happy_? How? All my favourite characters keep getting killed or maimed."

Steph shrugs her shoulders. "It's still fun, isn't it?"

Jason's face twists into a noncommittal smile. "Yeah, I guess it is."

The two of them shift around on the couch, settling down for another season of whatever show they were watching. It looked fun - Barbara decided to put it on her watch list. Between supporting the Bats and the Birds of Prey, she had little time to spare to hunt out good entertainment.

She almost laughed aloud at the thought. It was the first happy thought she had had about the situation in a while.

She had gone into the evening thinking that all it would entail was watching Bruce get a coronary at the sight of his two troublesome pupils engaging in a romantic relationship. And maybe Tim throwing a fit of his own. And Dick going into another one of his episodes where he becomes overly emotional over a minor issue that _does not concern him_ , thank you very much. And Damian glowering and sulking in the background over losing his crush to the black sheep of the family.

Instead, Jason and Steph had decided to hash out the things they hadn't talked about with anyone else, and everyone was completely blindsided by truths they didn't want to hear.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious. Both Jason and Steph needed the chance to let go of their demons, and part of the reason they had managed to keep their relationship going was that they were willing to be open and vulnerable with each other. Although Bruce's voyeuristic tendencies had not failed to have an effect on them - that was an impossibility for anyone not named Alfred Pennyworth - the two of them hadn't let it stop them from building the kind of communication that makes relationships last.

Although given that this was the first time that the two of them were discussing this stuff, they clearly had a lot of ground to cover in that sphere.

Barbara decided to let herself sit back and watch the denizens of the Cave for a while. The couple weren't going anywhere at the moment - she could get away with not focusing on them and get struck by yet another bombshell of some sort. This night had had a few years worth of drama already, she could use a break.

\---------------------------------

Predictably, the calm in Jason's place was contrasted by the storm raging in the Cave. Dick was ranting at Bruce about not treating his kids better and making a big emotional speech about how the family needed to stick together and support each other in times of need. Tim and Damian had shut down completely, staring blankly at the screen and giving up any pretence of taking part in the conversation. Cass was sitting at the back, keeping a watchful eye on the rest, but Barbara could see the tension in her muscles as well.

"Guys, zip it. It's pointless to discuss what Bruce has or has not done now. It's in the past, and I think it's pretty clear that Jason is mostly done with Bruce being a dad when it's convenient for him."

Bruce seemed like he had something to say about that, but Cass cut him off.

"You hurt him. Chose... yourself. Over him."

Cass had nailed the art of saying a lot with few words.

"You are... selfish. Cannot give... what he needs. It is not wrong, yes. But... not what father should do."

And yeah, that pretty much summed up the issue.

"Yeah, she said it better than I could. Trust me, I get that you have the right to choose yourself over your son - but once you've done that, you don't get to ask your son to trust you."

Barbara took a deep breath. This was hard, but Bruce needed to hear it. They all did.

"He gave his life for your ego, Bruce. That's a high price to ask of someone, even if you don't want to acknowledge that he's your son."

"I do acknowledge that he's my son. I just needed time."

"Here's the funny thing about family, Bruce. It doesn't depend on your convenience. Jason's not your son only when you like him. You gave up the right to be a parent when you disowned him to ease your guilt. Actions like that can't be turned back that easily."

Barbara decided to stop that line of discussion. She had to get to the point.

"As I said, that's beside the point now. What matters is this - you need to _leave them be_. They've had more than their fair share of shit thrown their way by you - both of them. For their sake and yours, leave them alone."

"Gordon, why are you repeating yourself? I'm sure that Father has not forgotten your diatribe on the issue this soon."

"He is planning to ignore it, though. He can't help himself but slide back into that kind of behaviour when something that he disapproves of happens."

All of them looked at Bruce. His expression was stony, and that said enough.

"You need to stop, Bruce. They deserve better than you fucking with their emotions."

"I'm just trying to be a good-"

"What you're trying to be doesn't really matter here. What you _are_ , does. And what you are is a man who hurts those around him because he could not be bothered to be careful about how others feel about the things he says and does."

Bruce's face crumpled, but Barbara kept going. She had to.

"Your carelessness is not a good excuse, Bruce. It never has been. At the end of the day, you've hurt them, and whether you understood the implications of your actions or not doesn't help them."

Bruce grit his teeth, but Barbara refused to give him an inch. She couldn't. Steph's peace of mind depended on it.

"You need to get used to not having the things you want."

Thankfully, Bruce doesn't have a reply to that.

\---------------------------------

As the season ended, Barbara checked back in. Jason was twitching - he was clearly about to speak.

Given that the amount of trivial dialogue exchanged between him and Steph was pretty low tonight, it was clearly going to be something vital that they needed to hear.

Barbara found herself praying for the times that Jason and Steph would idly flirt with each other over comms, forcing her to give them a separate channel so that she could spare her ears from the constant inflow of endearment and teasing. She hadn't thought that would be possible. but the lovebirds before her had a habit of proving her wrong.

"So... this was the road trip season?"

"...Not _all_ of it was on the road."

"Everyone was trying to go to... what was the place called? Mistral? Yeah, I'll say it was a road trip season."

"...Yeah, you have a point."

Steph picked up her drink, sipping on it. Barbara remembered that she had the highest level of alcohol tolerance among them all, including Jason. They would probably get through a lot more of that before the night was out.

Jason was staring at his drink, pondering over something. Barbara steeled herself for another discussion she was neither ready for nor supposed to hear.

"Do you want to leave?"

Steph was startled by the question as well. "What do you mean, leave?"

"Leave the vigilante life behind."

"...I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"We're helping people when we go out. We're doing good. Why should we stop?"

"You just told me that you think Bruce and Tim would prefer to have you dead."

"You and I both know I didn't mean it that way."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you feel uncomfortable around them. That you feel they will use you and throw you away as per their convenience."

Jason inched closer to Steph, putting a hand on hers in a comforting gesture.

"I know what the night job means to you. But you have to understand, you can't just discard your own life for this."

"I'm not - that's not what I'm doing. I'm not throwing my life away. I'm going to college, studying medicine. I'm _building_ my life here."

"And being Batgirl has nothing to do with it. That's just you, Steph, and you don't need to wear an armoured costume and beat up thugs for that."

"It's not enough. You know why."

Jason grimaced. Barbara couldn't understand. _Why not?_ Barbara knew how much Steph had wanted to become a doctor, to help people like her mother did when she wasn't getting high.

"The costume gives us power. It lets us believe that we can solve problems by punching them hard enough. And though we do solve a lot of problems between the punching and the detectiving, they aren't _ours_. But it's just enough to keep going."

_Oh._

Barbara understood that feeling. She understood it all too well.

She had spent quite a few nights wondering if she should just abandon the computers on the Watchtower, go home, sleep and wake up as just Barbara Gordon. Not Oracle.

And every time the insidious thought came, she looked at the cases open before her and told herself that her presence was _necessary_. That these people she had never met before and probably will never see again need her to help them, that she _had_ to do her part to make the world a better place. No matter the cost.

She told herself that she was better off than Dick was. At least she hadn't thrown her civilian life away for this crusade for justice and peace.

But looking at Steph, for the first time in years, she found herself wondering if that was the right example to set for her successors.

She observed as Jason remained silent, his grip on Steph's hand tightening in a show of support.

"We're stuck here. Until we've been worn down, or find something else to live for."

And wasn't that a tragic thought? Being stuck with a costume that you felt a duty to put on, even though it only brought you pain?

"Then let's leave for each other."

Jason's eyes had an oddly determined look to them.

"Let's just leave Gotham. Maybe even leave the country. You said that you wanted to study in Oxford - so do I. Let's just go."

"We can't."

Steph's eyes were filled with a sadness that Barbara wasn't used to seeing.

Steph was the happy-go-lucky member of the group. She was the one who remained upbeat and optimistic, despite all the bullshit that came her way.

Despite Dick's reputation for smiling all the time, he was still nowhere close to as _hopeful_ as Steph was. Seeing her like this was... unsettling.

"Both of us have too much of an attachment to Gotham to leave it for good."

Jason gritted his teeth, and Barbara felt a dreadful idea creep up on her.

"We've lost too much to this city to just leave. We both need some form of payback."

Steph curled her free hand into a fist, staring blankly at the TV screen without actually seeing it. Barbara could sense the frustration in her.

A frustration she knew very, _very_ well.

The city had planted its hooks into her, just like it had done to all of them. Gotham was a possessive mistress, who consumed all you had and continued to ask - no, _demand_ \- more and more until you had nothing left to give. Jason knew it - it was why he had come back even though he could have built a life for himself outside wit Talia. Steph knew it too - she could have remained outside Gotham after she had managed to leave to heal.

Instead, they were both stuck here, trapped in this sewer of a city that would bleed them dry if given half a chance.

Jason, however, seemed determined to get something out of the discussion.

"You know I'm not going to stop asking."

"I know. And I hope that I have a better answer for you someday."

"Yeah, I hope _I_ have a better answer for me someday too."

Because Jason knew what that felt like, didn't he? To be chained to a terrible thing that was going to be the end of you? Gotham, after all, wasn't the only obsessive, controlling figure in his life.

He leaned back a bit, but kept his hold on her hand.

"So, what's next?"

Steph turned to face Jason, cocking her head to the side. _Like a robin_ , Barbara mused.

"If we're staying here in Gotham, what do we need to do so that you can feel safe and cared for?"

"You don't need to make me feel 'cared for'. I can handle that myself." Steph scoffed.

"Doesn't mean that I don't want to do whatever I can to make you feel better about being here."

"I don't think there's anything that can be done about the Bats."

"We could talk to them."

Steph merely raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, at least Alfred and Cass. Maybe Babs too."

Barbara felt flattered at the faith Jason had in her. She hoped she could prove herself worthy of it.

Steph was her protege. She was determined to do right by her.

She remembered not believing in her when she had taken the costume from Cass. Believing Bruce's bullshit about her and allowing it to construct her view of a girl who was determined to do right by the people of Gotham.

Jason pressed the point further.

"I don't want you to be in a position where you have to be around people you can't trust."

"And even though Bruce literally _killed_ you, you still associate with him on the reg."

 _She's right about that_ , Barbara mused. Jason needed to look out for his needs as well. Something he had demonstrated extreme disregard for, both in the distant past and the present.

"That's because I have to."

"You could leave the life behind too, you know. You've definitely given up enough and lost enough for that."

"Funny how suffering's a tool for measuring worth, right?"

Barbara had found it funny too, once. She didn't find it funny anymore. It was just proof of how unfair the world was, and she didn't need to spend any more of her life pondering that issue.

"Funny but accurate. You _do_ deserve to be able to have a life. You never had a fair chance to live yours."

"I did. For three years, with my dad. It didn't last, but it was great, and I wouldn't trade it for the world."

"Were they good enough to keep looking for them even after everything that has happened?"

"...Yeah."

Steph smiled at him.

"What are you looking for, then?" Jason asked.

"That moment when Cass gave me her uniform and told me that I was worthy of it. And the moment when Babs said the same thing."

Barbara froze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Cass doing the same.

Jason smiled back.

He raised his drink in his free hand. Steph grabbed her own.

"Hopefully, we both can find what we are looking for."

"Hopefully." Steph's voice sounded worn down, tired. _Is she hiding this stuff from me?_ Barbara wonders. _Or did I just never notice?_

 _Never again_ , Barbara vowed. _I'm not going to let you suffer in silence again._

She owed her that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMHO Jason is the kind of guy who would both want kids and be able to raise them well. He's self-aware enough to know that he has flaws and smart enough to not pass them down to his children. Steph's the same, and she's also the determined sort of person who will try her level best to give her baby the best life she can. It might also be their only way out of the night job, one that they can live with.
> 
> Also, I'm going to feature every season of RWBY before the fic ends. Apologies in advance, but I've already made a bad choice and I'm determined to see it through.


	9. Motherhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph and Jason talk about mothers. Ones in the past, the present and an alternate future that could have been.
> 
> Meanwhile, Damian observes the scene. He has some... thoughts... about where to go from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I guess we're nearing the end of viability for this concept, and I think I'll have to wrap it up soon. We're three seasons of RWBY away from catching up, and I have stubbornly decided to stick with the frankly terrible idea of structuring a series around something as flimsy as that.

Damian had now watched his estranged brother and his rebellious sister - or is it, colleague? Friend of a friend? - sit on Todd's subpar couch and talk openly about difficult emotions for three hours. He had been woefully unprepared for this - the most he had expected from the pair was some sort of plan to 'fuck with Bruce', as Todd would have put it.

Instead, he had been faced with an uncomfortable revelation - two of their members had been in an intimate relationship for an extended period. At least two years, given by the information gathered from the conversation. And they had managed to successfully hide it from most of the family. Given that all of them were _detectives_ , there was a substantial cause for wonder.

For Father, it had also seemed to be the cause a tremendous amount of worry.

Now, they had listened to (eavesdropped on, but that was hardly a concern) the couple discuss some of the things that their family did not ever bring up with each other, as a general rule. After all, most of the Bats operated on some variation of emotional repression.

( _All the male ones_ , Damian's mind supplied, but he ignored it.)

Damian was neither particularly shy nor very concerned about breaching boundaries - there were some things you had to give up to be a Bat, after all. However, he had already come to the conclusion that eavesdropping on the pair currently plastered over the Cave's screens was a pointless exercise. They had not managed to uncover evidence of any devious plot, but merely proof of crimes Father had buried.

For the first time, Damian found himself questioning Father's motives and decisions. He had conclusively proven that not only was the Rule merely a guideline for him but that he was not to be trusted on exercising his judgement properly.

He had, after all, failed to come up with even a lie to attempt to exonerate himself. Even though Cain's presence would have made such an endeavour useless, it was still unsettling to realize that Father was, after all, merely a man.

It was a sobering realization.

\---------------------------------

Brown and Todd sat side by side on the couch, glasses of whiskey in hand and feet touching while resting on top of the coffee table. Damian was uncomfortable with how... _right_ it looked.

"Hey Jay, I had a question."

"Okay, so we're going down the Jay route now, are we?"

Damian found himself equally surprised by the usage of the pet name.

"Shut it. I'm serious. I. Have. A. Question."

"Fire away."

"How did you deal with it when your mom was... using?"

Todd did not respond.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked-"

"Don't worry, Blondie, I'm not mad. I just... wasn't expecting that, you know."

"It's just... I feel pretty good now, you know? I don't know how many glasses I've had, but I like how I feel right now. And... my mom's a nurse, and she does double shifts like... 8 days a week. If she just wants to feel good after all that... am I a bad person for wanting her to stop?"

That managed to elicit a violent reaction from Todd. He sat up ramrod straight, nearly dropping his drink, before turning to face her head-on.

"No, Steph. No. Absolutely not."

"But she-"

"-Might have a bunch of reasons for using - and they might be excellent reasons too. Doesn't change that you're allowed to feel that she's shortchanging you."

"But she's my mom - and she sacrificed so much for me. Arthur was just a fucking third-rate criminal who kept using us for his own ends, and Mom had to pick up the slack. She made sure that I had a chance to get out of the shithole that we live in. And... I want to ask her to stop doing something that she frankly needs to cope with the stress of her position right now."

"And as much as I hate the line, there are other options out there. Many that do not involve the regular consumption of opioids. You're allowed to want her to stop."

Todd's expression displayed a level of earnestness Damian had never seen before.

"You love her - I get that. That doesn't mean you need to agree with the things she has done."

As Brown put her drink back down on the table, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Clearly, this was an overwhelmingly emotional topic for both of them.

"Her addiction isn't her fault. It's a disease. And she needs help with that. It's okay for her to not be providing for you all the time. It's okay for her to stop and try to get better. She doesn't need to keep fighting for you. And you don't need to rely just on her."

And at that, Brown began to weep openly.

"Hey. Come here."

Todd put his own glass down before scooting over closer to his partner (and that was an odd idea he hadn't really come to terms with), putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a tight hug.

For a moment, he seemed to be behaving like Grayson.

This was a kind of affection Todd seldom displayed. He had only seen him be this openly emotional with one other person.

Mother.

\---------------------------------

As Brown's sobbing died down and she wiped the tear tracks off her face, she removed herself from Jason's hold and regained her original position on the couch.

Todd, however, seemed lost in thought.

If the rest of the night was any indication, another emotional conversation was coming.

This was getting ridiculous. Surely the two of them could find another time for this and spare them the discomfort?

"You know, my mom wasn't always an addict. She started with the heroin after Willis failed a job and she didn't have money for her cancer medication."

As expected, Brown was shocked by this.

"Willis got caught and went to jail. We had to post bail - it wouldn't be possible for us to make it to next month with him in prison. But that meant cutting into the money for her treatment."

Damian silently begged both Todd and God to stop and carry on some other day, when he could be somewhere else not listening to his brother's deepest, darkest secrets.

"It's funny. I hated the fact that she was taking the stuff, but when she wasn't on them... she was in so much pain. So much.

Clearly, neither his brother nor any higher powers were listening.

"One time, she tried to quit cold turkey. Two days later, the withdrawals hit. _Hard_."

Unbeknownst to Todd, Brown was clearly having trouble composing herself. At all odds, she managed to keep a brave face.

"I had to go out and steal some morphine from Leslie's clinic."

"You did the best you could, Jason."

"And it wasn't good enough."

Todd turned to face Brown head on.

"Promise that you'll try to get your mom into rehab."

Brown nods, slowly.

Good. At least they're making some important decisions that will be immensely beneficial to them.

\---------------------------------

"Do you think I would have been a good mother?"

Damian suppressed the urge to scoff at the statement. Brown, despite her numerous crippling flaws as a vigilante, was clearly well-suited toward the task of rearing children.

The only other person he knew with her kind of fierce maternal instinct was Mother.

Todd clearly agreed with him.

"You would have been a great mom. No doubt about it."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I know that you would have squeezed Bruce dry to make sure your child had everything they needed, pride be damned."

Well, that was not the reasoning he had expected.

"That's not the endorsement I expected."

"It's still true, though. You won't take a cent from me, or Crystal, or Talia, or Bruce when it comes to med school, but you _will_ do it if it meant that your kid gets a better shot at life. That's why you gave your baby up in the first place, wasn't it?

Brown nods, hesitantly.

"You won't put other people at risk for your ego. You might have a habit of sacrificing what you want instead of asking other people, but you won't let it affect other people. That's one of your best qualities, Steph. You aren't crippled by pride like the rest of the Bats."

"You're one of the Bats."

"Nah, I'm not. The only family I have there is the Demon Brat, and that's because he's Talia's kid."

Brown's face contorted in an indescribable manner.

"Yeah. I know."

Wait. What was Todd trying to imply here?

Whatever it was, Brown seemed to be agreeing with it.

"I swear, that kid... if there's ever a case for spanking brats, that is _it_."

Damian felt a blush bloom on his cheeks. No, he was _not_ a crass commoner like that, thank you very much.

He was merely too well-bred to allow the heathens Father had collected to pretend that they were superior to him.

Grayson was a somewhat decent person, but the rest of them... were unsalvageable.

"I'll say... Talia sure didn't teach him any humility, did she?"

"Not that Ra's would have let any of that stick. He was supposed to be the Heir to the Demon, of _course_ the guy would have an oversized ego."

"Not that _Bruce_ would let any of that stick. That man would not know humility if it struck him in the face."

"Since that's the one thing Alfred will never do, we can safely say that there is no hope for him."

"Amen to that." Brown raised her glass in assent.

Damian could feel Father's... irritation? Anger? Disappointment? He couldn't place it accurately, but it made him uncomfortable. Father never behaved like this.

"You know, you never told me how Talia became your mom."

As much as Damian hated giving that ground up to someone, he had to admit that Mother viewed Todd like a son.

And Todd reciprocated her affections more than he ever responded to Father. Although given the exchanges he had listened to today, he was forced to admit that Father had probably made a lot of mistakes in his dealings with Todd to drive him to that point.

"I'm always going to be a mama's boy."

"Given that the mama in question is Talia, that statement goes straight from adorkably funny to downright terrifying."

"Hey, she isn't that bad."

"She tried to get her own son killed."

"After trying to replace him because Bruce effectively prevented her from being in her son's life. Not to mention that Bruce would end up doing something along the same lines as her immediately after losing his blood son."

And normally, that would have been a throwaway comment, for them to all ignore. But Damian saw Father respond with a full-body flinch.

Damian was sick of this. Right now, this was a tired trope that, for some reason, was continually being revisited again and again.

Damian wondered if that was because of Father's lack of imagination or his inability to give ground to others.

Fortunately, the couple on screen didn't seem interested in discussing that. Honestly, that sounded like a good option. Maybe if they could get Father to confess his own sins, he could be forced to make some attempt at redemption.

"She threw away a chance to make nice with Bruce to make sure that I didn't end up getting shortchanged in the deal."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"We _know_ that Bruce would prefer a comatose, non-functional version of me rather than have the person he has right now to keep his delusional imagined version of me alive."

Well, Todd seemed to have Father figured out.

Before today, Damian would have denied such an accusation, but given the events of the past few hours, he was forced to conclude that Todd's assessment of Father's personality was accurate.

He had, after all, perpetuated a lie about Todd and spread his own fantastical theories about why he was the way he was, just to stay in control of the narrative. He had committed heinous acts and hidden them so that his point could not be disproven. He had crossed all the lines they had drawn for themselves and brought dishonour upon the Bats.

It was difficult to trust his judgement on any matter now.

Damian needed to prove that Father would revert to being a kind, just, _good_ man given the opportunity. He had never had the benefit of extensive foreknowledge and proper support when it came to dealing with his second son. He would certainly prove his worth given a fair opportunity.

Right?

Well, it seemed like Brown would soon give them a window.

She picked up the remote and pointed it at their screen, tilting her head towards Jason.

Jason shrugged. "Well, I guess we can keep going with that. Hopefully, there'll be time for _Throne of Blood_ at the end of this."

They both smiled at each other, settling into comfortable viewing positions.

Good. They could use the break.

Damian turned to Father, a hard look in his eyes.

"Father. I believe you owe us an explanation."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For me, Talia is always more interesting as a somewhat dubious figure who has made bad choices but has always wanted the best for the ones she loves. Personally, I find my headcanon version of her more deserving of forgiveness than my mental conception of Bruce, who, for no good reason, decides to regress into 'shitty excuse for a human being' territory at every crisis because his ego is too large for his own good.


	10. Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce wonders why Jason won't come back to him. Luckily enough, Jason provides an answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably a less focused chapter than the rest, but I hope it still makes sense. I'm not ready to re-read the thing.

Bruce felt a strangely familiar swell of shame as Damian decided to grill him. This night was not going well.

"Father."

Shit. Damian sounded _mad_.

"I would ask you to confirm the veracity of Todd's statements, but I feel that it would be a pointless waste of time and breath."

Bruce, for the umpteenth time tonight, felt backed into a corner where there was no good way out.

"Todd has accused you of throwing him under the bus for me. I am going to presume that he has at least some cause for believing that. Can you at least elaborate on your motivations for these actions?"

Explain his motivation. Yes, he could do that.

"You are my son. Of course I would do whatever I could to bring you back."

"And what was your plan to achieve this goal?"

"...I decided to take Jason to Ethiopia." 

Going by the rest of the family's reaction, it seemed like they weren't going to be sympathetic.

Barbara's sharp voice cut through the cave.

"I'm sorry, you did what?"

"...I took Jason to Ethiopia."

"Why am I getting the feeling that I'm going to be dissatisfied by whatever you have to say?"

"I cannot control how you will feel about my actions. But I intended to bring my son back, no matter what the cost."

Unfortunately, Tim decided to choose this point to enter the conversation.

"And I was going to complain about you sacrificing one son for another, but given that you've practically disowned Jason, I'm guessing that made it easier. I guess I can see where Dick got it from."

Dick seemed like he was about to rebut Tim's accusation, but Damian seemed like he was not in the mood to let go.

"Cease your petty ramblings, Drake. This is far more important than the mantle of Robin."

Without skipping a beat, Damian proceeded with his interrogation.

"And what did you do next?"

"I asked him to reveal what brought him back to life."

The silence in the Cave was deafening.

"You know what, at this point I should stop being surprised by you being a manipulative asshole, but I guess I'm always hoping that you'll occasionally prove to us that you actually care."

Dick's voice sounded hoarse and strained, probably the result of an attempt to stop it from cracking.

"I was a fool for believing in you."

Bruce flinched. He hadn't expected that.

"Father. If I understood you correctly, your plan was to take Todd out to the place where he died, and force him to relive his own death to find out how he was revived?"

Yeah, when stated out loud, it did sound quite ridiculous.

"You did this without actually _asking_ him how he came back to life. Am I correct?"

Bruce didn't have a good rebuttal to that, so he merely grunted in assent.

"At best, Father, you have displayed an incredible amount of emotional instability here. At worst, you have treated Todd's life and well-being as trivial - thereby proving that the events that befell us upon his arrival in Gotham were not a product of extraordinary circumstances, but a reflection of your general attitude towards him."

In that moment, Bruce regretted ever teaching Damian to stand up to him. He could use a break from all this childhood rebellion, no matter how legitimate their points were.

Surely, they could deal with this later, when they had more information to reflect on to ascertain Jason's.. character? He wasn't sure exactly why he was still spying on Jason, apart from the fact that he felt compelled to do it to satiate his curiosity and know how to push him to his side on the moral issues they disagreed on.

Probably best to keep that to himself. Cass was the only person who could tell at a glance, and she didn't seem intent on outing him right now.

"Look, I admit, I was harsh towards him, but-"

"Harsh?" Tim barked, his voice mocking and mirthless. "Bruce, you decided that you were willing to sacrifice his life for Damian's. Without telling him what you wanted to do. You wanted him to follow you without question, and use him like we use any other informant we get."

Bruce didn't really have a reply for that - his best assistant was right, after all.

Tim straightened up to face him.

"Look here, Bruce... we don't really have much of a chance of getting through to those two. You've smashed whatever credibility you have with them. Permanently."

"I admit that I have made mistakes, but-"

"Fuck you, Bruce. _Mistakes_ doesn't begin to cover this bullshit." Dick interjects.

"I have to agree with Dick here." Barbara was clearly not going to show much sympathy. "This is not just a 'mistake'. This is you systematically trivializing people who put their lives on the line for your mission because you want to be in the right."

Damian, clearly, had had enough of the ramblings.

"Discussions of guilt and blame are pointless here. The important part, Father, is this - do you realize that you have wronged Todd? And are you willing to apologize for you past and present behaviour, while attempting to do and be better?"

Thankfully, it seemed as though there was a God, and he was on Bruce's side. Bruce sent up a prayer of thanks, as he prepared his reply.

"Yes. I know I made a mistake, and I assure you, none of you will have to worry about me hurting any of you."

"No. You lie."

Cass' soft voice carried through the cave, and a stunned silence followed in its wake.

And Barbara decided to fill the silence by pointing out the obvious.

"And if that wasn't bad enough, he didn't actually admit he is wrong."

\

For once, Damian looked lost. There was a brand of hurt and disappointment on his face that Bruce had never seen before. He was sure he didn't want to see it again.

Dick, for some reason, did not seem as shocked.

"As I said, I was a fool for believing in you."

\---------------------------------

"Do you think there's a chance you and Bruce can... fix it? Be a family again?"

Strange, how Stephanie was the one that asked that question, but Bruce ignored it in favour of waiting for the answer.

Jason, however, seemed uninterested in prolonged drama. Ironic, given how the night had played out so far.

"No."

"Well that was decisive."

"You read my mind, Steph." Barbara chimed in.

"Well, I don't see why I would go to him."

"To have a dad again?"

_Yes, Stephanie_ , Bruce thinks. _Push that angle_.

"Maybe in the past, yeah, I would have done it. Not anymore."

"What changed?"

"I have you."

Bruce didn't want it, he _didn't_ , but he couldn't prevent the pang of jealousy from rising through his chest and consuming his entire being.

He knew it was stupid and petty and utterly pointless to be jealous of Jason's _girlfriend_ , but he couldn't help it. She was stealing Jason from him, at a time when he had finally become stable enough to be part of the family again.

"Should I be concerned about that?" Stephanie asked.

"Nah, I don't think so."

"Please, do explain."

"...I wanted Bruce to care about me and love me like he did back when I was Robin. And even though I realized pretty soon that that couldn't happen, that I didn't even really want that to happen, I wanted Bruce to prove that he had loved me, that the Robin he had had was worth _something_ to him apart from empty words."

_Those weren't empty words_ , Bruce thought. _I loved Jason. I loved the boy more than anything else. And that boy would_ never _want me to give up what I want most._

"He gave me food and shelter and safety, and I thought that was love. Took me a long time to realize that it wasn't."

"I still don't see how I play into it."

"I just wanted someone to put me before anyone else. You did."

And did Bruce really have to explain why that was a bad idea? They were the protectors of Gotham, they couldn't afford to put themselves before the city.

"Bruce thinks he puts Gotham before everything else, but that's just a lie. Whether he knows it or not is up for debate, and my money's on him being a delusional asshole taken by his own lies. But the fact remains, that he's only fighting for himself."

And wasn't that proof that this man here was nothing like Jason? Jason wouldn't have hesitated to sacrifice himself for Gotham, he was even more entrenched in the city than Bruce was. He had cared so much more about the plight of victims than Bruce had found himself capable of, wasn't that the very thing that had caused the whole Garzonas issue?

"He sold us this dream of being able to do good, and telling ourselves that we were heroes. Like any other drug dealer, he hooked us with the good stuff, and it came at pretty much no real cost."

"How is Robin something that comes at 'no real cost'?" Stephanie asked.

_Yes, Jason, please explain that,_ Bruce thought to himself. _You cannot seriously think that being Robin was a safe endeavour._

"It might look and feel dangerous, but none of us Robins had to handle anything of note when we wore the green and red. We were cushioned by Batman, and trained to work ourselves to the bone for no real reward. He would dole out minute levels of appreciation at lengthy intervals, long enough to make us push ourselves further and further but not so long as to make us stop giving a shit. And he made sure to threaten us with his disapproval to make sure we stayed in line. You know, I saw Idris Elba pull off that character as the Commandant in _Beasts of No Nation_ , and he was definitely _not_ the hero in that movie."

Jason waved his hand, dismissing the diversion.

"To get back to the point - he conditioned us to believe the same lie he believes, that we are good for this city. And for most of you guys, it's not that much of an issue when the illusion breaks - you have other people to fall back on. I... didn't."

Jason inhaled shakily, and Bruce felt a sense of dread crawl up his spine.

"I was willing to go back to him over and over because he had conditioned me to do it. To see him an an irreproachable authority and want to go back to him. And since I had no one else, he could do whatever he wanted to me and know that I wouldn't run away."

Jason shook his head, his expression softening immensely as he looked at Stephanie.

"You aren't trying to push me to be someone I can't be. The only other person who ever did that for me was Talia, and she can't really be around for me."

Bruce felt anger wash over him this time.

No, Jason had him wrong. That absurd reasoning was not why Bruce was hard on him. He was hard on Jason because he knew he could take it. He knew Jason would always bounce back, would always show that his loyalty lay with the Bats, with Gotham.

He just needed to be reminded of what he needed to be once in a while.

He glanced at Cass, and he could see disgust painted plainly on her face.

_Shit. She's going to skewer me._

\---------------------------------

Fortunately (or otherwise), Barbara decided to go first.

"Okay, given Cass' expression and your reaction, I'm guessing you actually believed that you could bring Jason back to the fold despite your actions."

"I was merely giving him the right kind of reinforcement to make sure he stayed within the lines. I never did anything to him that he couldn't handle."

"Motherfucker- _anything he couldn't handle_?" Dick exclaimed, his voice hoarse with shock and horror. "Bruce, are you listening to yourself here? I'm a cop, Bruce. That's the kind of offence I arrest people for. At best, they get a restraining order - at worst, prison time."

"Don't be ridiculous, Dick. You will not put me in prison. Even you will agree that Jason needs to be pushed back into line from time to time."

"And normally I would agree, but from what the two of you are saying and are refusing to state out loud, I'm gathering that said line has nothing to do with what's right and wrong and is more connected to what you approve of and what you reject."

"We know that I have set forth a good set of rules for our operation. Rules that I subject myself to as well, no matter what."

"Unless you think that the outcome is worth it." Tim adds. "And we've demonstrated already that you cannot be relied on for sound judgement."

"I admit that I have made grave errors in how I have handled Jason, but that doesn't excuse what he has done."

"And we're not trying to excuse what he has done to us. We'll deal with that on our own terms. But you do realize that thanks to everyone here bearing your insignia, we're implicated in the shitty things that you have done?"

Tim dragged his forearm across his face in exasperation.

"Bruce, every time you go off on Jason, and we stand back and let you inevitably fuck it up, we're party to the things that you do. We stood by and let you cut his throat, we stood by when you decided to trade him for Damian, and we stood by when you decided to beat him up when he shot the Penguin. That doesn't look good for us, especially given that we're trying to take the moral high ground here."

Tim pointed at the monitor, showing Jason and Stephanie sitting next to each other.

"And that, Bruce, is where we're at because of your stupidity. Your own goddamn son has permanently stopped trusting you, and you're the only one to blame."

No, Tim was wrong. Bruce would prove it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think most of the arguments the Bats have against Jason become very shaky thanks to the shit Bruce has pulled over his time as Jason's preferred father (hell, even that is questionable these days). The moral high ground doesn't really exist - which I feel is the biggest flaw of Batman canon in dealing with their interpretation of Jason Todd.


	11. The Best of Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph and Jason talk about Cass, who later discusses Bruce's chances of reconciliation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about how long it takes to get chapters out, work's getting progressively more hectic and weekdays don't give much in the way of writing time anymore. Add in the usual levels of procrastination, and it's hard to get this written even with the ~~minimal~~ complete lack of editing that goes into this.
> 
> I just realized that the artifice of the situation goes both ways - just like the Cave denizens are spying on Jason and Steph and know more than they are supposed to, Jason and Steph have the power to talk about people without them having a say.

As the next season of that strange TV show came to an end, and the sun peeked through the curtains of Jason's humble abode, Cass could see how much more relaxed Steph and Jason were compared to a few hours back.

They looked... lighter. Like they had just put down a heavy bag or had come back from a long and tiring patrol run.

She supposed that they _were_ a bit lighter, after having revealed some of their deepest insecurities to each other.

She wondered what the two would discuss now. Hopefully, they could keep it to the show, so that they could at least spend some time watching the two of them being cute.

She firmly believed that if the rest of the family got to watch the two of them being in love, they would see how important it was to them and how much they needed the companionship, and support their decisions.

Dad was just angry because he had been called out, and the same went for the rest of the older people. Little baby Damian was mad because he wanted Dad to be the best man in the world, and he wasn't. Barbara, at least, didn't seem that angry, just disappointed.

 _Heh. Just disappointed._ She had heard Jason make that joke a few months ago when they were talking about mothers and Talia had called him. He had miscalculated the damage from a warehouse he had blown up and had gotten a large gash in his right arm that he had ignored for a few hours evacuating homeless people sheltering nearby and trying to make sure that the firefighters actually dealt with the blaze, leaving the would unattended and increasing the chance of infection.

Talia had spent more than twenty minutes yelling at Jason and worrying over his health, all over the phone. Thankfully, Cass had dropped by his location when he was heading to a safe house, and she had taken it upon herself to dress and disinfect his wounds and provide some proper treatment. She had wanted to drag him to the cave, but she knew he would resist and travelling in the Batmobile was asking for a deadly infection. Dad was notoriously bad at cleaning the seats regularly.

"So... that was interesting." Jason remarked.

"Which part?" Steph asked.

"The whole 'Ruby should be in charge because she's the best' thing."

"What of it?"

"Reminded me of us."

"Why though?"

"It would be a better way of organising our dysfunctional cooperative over here, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess. She would totally do a better job than Bruce."

"To be fair, _Dick_ did a better job than Bruce, and he was a pretty terrible Batman."

"I'm not sure I want her to be Batman."

"Me neither. Black Bat works better for her."

 _Wait_. They were talking about _her_?

She felt a blush colour her cheeks as Jason spoke again.

"Besides, Batman wouldn't be Batman without a ton of guilt and pride."

"Amen to that." Jason raised his drink for added effect.

 _Why are you two talking about everyone except yourselves_?

Cass was ready for them to move on, but they seemed uninterested.

Unfortunately, Steph decided to proceed with that line of questioning.

"Hey, imagine what it would be like if Cass was actually at the head of our operations."

"She would terrify every single idiot who even thought about becoming a criminal."

"Agreed. She is fucking scary in that outfit."

No, her outfit was _stealthy_. People were not supposed to be scared of it, they were not even supposed to be able to _see_ it.

The two of them chuckled, and Cass wondered why she even liked them.

"But seriously... Cass would be the perfect replacement for Bruce." Steph said.

"Nah, she's too good to just be a replacement for Bruce."

"That's high praise."

"Not really. It's not that hard to replace Bruce. But Cass can do so much better than that. She is the best of us by _far_."

"Yeah, she is. For the same reason as Ruby, too."

"Yeah. I don't know where she gets it from, but she is a _good person_. She's the only person who can actually speak of following the rule without it being complete bullshit."

"Even me? I'm hurt."

"No offence, Blondie, but you don't actually believe in not killing people. Cass does. And she believes in it for reasons that I can respect."

"And what are these reasons? Also, I'm intrigued by how _you_ know this, and I don't."

"Because we talked about it once, when we were talking about the Pit and killing and other stuff that's taboo at Wayne Manor. She doesn't want to hurt people, so she refrains from doing it as much as possible."

"Despite going out every night to punch criminals in the face?"

"How often have you actually seen her punch criminals in the face?"

"Now that you mention it, she actually doesn't do that too often. But I'm still going to pin that on her absurd skill level and the costume."

"She convinced Bruce to start a Wayne Enterprises program employing ex-cons after stopping desperate idiots one night. That's better than what the rest of us put together have been able to do."

"And that's because she's got Bruce wrapped around her pinky."

"She's got Bruce wrapped around her pinky because she's a genuinely nice person and Bruce cannot really bring himself to disagree with her. And the only reason we haven't been fucked over by that is that she is not corruptible like the rest of us."

Cass' ears were tingling. She could sense Barbara laughing back in her room on the Watchtower.

She hoped the two of them would move onto something else and fast.

\---------------------------------

Thankfully, Jason and Steph stopped embarrassing her for a while after that discussion.

Jason left the couch, finishing his drink and moving off to the refrigerator to pull out some leftovers from the last night. He put half of the Tupperware containers back in the fridge and dumped the other half onto two plated and stuck them in the microwave oven.

"I'm getting the leftovers from last night if that's fine with you."

"Yeah, we've been doing a number on our diets with the extended drinking session, may as well go all-out."

"Hey, at least we can get a workout in sometime in the evening."

"The only workout I'm signing up for is one which involves that king-sized bed in the other room."

Well, at least the absurdly romantic side of Steph was back now. At least, she thought that was what romantic meant? She clearly loved him and was speaking from that part of her heart, but words like that were... difficult. They concealed as much as they revealed, and they tended to be confusing. She was, on the whole, not as much of a fan of the spoken and written word as Jason.

But the other occupants of the room seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable at this. Not as uncomfortable as they were with the two of them talking about their dark and troubled history with the family, but still uncomfortable.

She didn't fully understand what Jason and Steph felt towards each other, but she did know that they both liked each other a lot and that they would feel a lot better and be a lot happier in each other's presence.

Maybe this was something to do with the weird things that Talia and Steph would always joke about in Jason's presence. Those conversations _still_ had something to do with the bedroom too. She decided to ignore it - it wasn't that important. If it was, they would have explained it to her. What was important was that they were happy with each other.

Looking at Dad... hurt. He looked sad. There was pain and sadness and loss and hopelessness. Despair, maybe that was the right word. She would have to check with Jason or Barbara during their next reading session.

"Dad. They are _happy_. With each other. Isn't that enough?"

Dad looked at her, and she saw a flash of Bruce Wayne, the erstwhile Prince of Gotham.

"I don't want to be cut out of their life."

"Little Brother... is hurt. Too hurt. But wounds... can heal. Will heal. But not with more hurt."

"He doesn't want me there with him anymore."

"He doesn't want... you to hurt him. He still wants his father."

"I don't know what to do so that he will accept me."

"Maybe you could try being nice, for once." Babs provided. "Put the ego aside. Just a suggestion."

"Don't be mean." Cass chided. She could not let this conversation go wrong, like all the previous ones in this time they'd spent observing Steph and Jason.

She went back to talking to Dad.

"Dad. You need to show you care. That you... don't want to just _use_ him. That you want... a real relationship. And you need to accept that... he can say no."

"That's exactly what I want to avoid."

"But he has the right... to say no. You cannot... force it. You cannot force love."

"I don't want my son to hate me."

"That's a dangerously reductive binary you got going on there, Bruce." Babs warns. "There's more nuance there, and you know it. Even if Jason ultimately decides that he's better off without you as his dad, doesn't mean that you can't build another kind of functional relationship."

"What's the point? To get tortured by the fact that he doesn't want me to be his father any more?"

"He's not torturing you there - you're doing that to yourself. You don't get to ask for an unequal power dynamic here - we're well past the point where you could have treated Jason as a kid who needs to be reined in when he's naughty. Especially given your history with him."

Cass decided to step in again before an argument broke out.

"Dad. Please. You don't need to... grieve him. He's there."

"He's not the son I lost."

"In case you forgot, Bruce, he _died_." Babs reminded Dad, through gritted teeth. "And came back to life, in his grave. And got put into a magical pit that drives its users mad. And when he learned about what you had done in the time he was dead, he found that you had, to all appearances, moved on and decided to get neither justice nor vengeance for his death. No matter what your perspective is on the validity of either route, you failed to do anything to the Joker, just like when he took my legs."

"Barbara-"

"I had the good fortune of being able to have a supportive group of friends and family around me. And even then, I am sometimes angry at what was taken from me." She laughed. "Who am I kidding, I'm often angry. That's why I'm still in the game."

"But you didn't-"

"Become a murderer to get revenge, true. But then again, I didn't need that from my father to prove that he loved me, because my father is capable of showing me that he cares through other ways that fall in line with other properly functioning human beings - I know the concept is foreign to you, Bruce, but trust me, it's real. That doesn't change the fact that I am pissed that the fact that the Joker is still alive, and definitely doesn't get rid of all the times I have dreamed of torturing the bastard to death."

Dad looked shocked, but Barbara kept going.

"It is not wrong for any of the Joker's victims to demand justice in the form of death. It is not wrong of Jason to ask you, one of the few men who could stop the Joker, to do the deed to prove that you actually give a shit, because God knows that you failed at most other ways of doing it. I get that it feels unfair to have to give up your ideals, but your son is not a villain for asking you to do that. There are a lot of things wrong with how he operated back then, but that is not one of them."

Cass was frustrated. Why did everyone seem to be intent on starting an argument?

"Dad. You can do better. It can get better. But you need to be honest."

Dad smiled. "I don't think I can do that so easily, Cassandra."

"Here are some pointers, Bruce, I'll give them out for free. Maybe next time, don't try to use a crisis to bring Jason back to the fold. The next time he gets hit by fear toxin, maybe don't push your guilt complex onto him. And the next time you're sad about him not being the kid you lost, maybe try and keep it to yourself instead of trying to force him to be what he cannot be anymore. I'm pretty sure it's _physically impossible_ for him to be your mental construct of 'the Robin that died' anymore."

"Be nice." Cass reminded.

"Sorry, Cass. But he needs the truth."

Cass nods.

"Stop trying to win, Dad. It's not a fight."

\---------------------------------

Steph points the remote at the TV. "Ready for more?"

"Yep." Jason replies.

"'Kay, let's go. Hopefully, you aren't completely sick of this show yet."

"On the contrary, I am intrigued. I hope it remains just as interesting. Although the animation team seems like it could probably use a few more months to go over the things again."

Steph grimaced. "Yeah, that feeling isn't going to go away anytime soon."

"Why is that?"

"Well, you see..."

Cass was paying attention, she _was_ , but the spotlight was stolen by the arrival of another audience member.

"Young Masters and Misses, what are you doing here?"

Oh no. Alfred was here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't believe Bruce has no chance of reconciling with Jason. He just can't assume it will happen eventually, and he can't expect to get the kid he lost either. I know it's been said before, the point is that Bruce is _stubborn_ and won't listen to reason.
> 
> Also, I decided to write an Alfred chapter, since I want to add some variety and spread out the perspectives a bit more.


	12. No Good Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfred tries to stop Bruce from spying on Jason and Steph. In the meantime, he is confronted with the consequences of his choices over the past year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if this works... I don't think I managed to write Alfred with as much depth as I wanted, but I don't know what to change here.

When Master Bruce had mentioned that he intended to attempt to observe Master Jason and Miss Stephanie on their day off, Alfred had been mildly concerned. Still, he had put it off as just a temporary flare-up of a beleaguered father's paranoia.

Looking into the situation in the Cave now, he realised that he should have probably pushed harder to dissuade the man. He should have anticipated his stubbornness and acted to indicate that the meeting between the two young lovers was not a matter that needed his attention.

It might have been going against their desire to reveal this to Master Bruce on their own terms, but it would have still been _much_ better than... whatever this was.

Alfred was certain that he'd rather have the pair hate him for the rest of their lives than have Master Bruce engage in such an unspeakable violation of their privacy.

Speaking of which - Alfred was sure that this was not something that Master Bruce had pulled off on his own. The extent of surveillance available to them indicated the involvement of Master Timothy or Miss Gordon. And given that Miss Gordon was aware of the couple's need for peace and solitude, it was unlikely to be her.

Not to mention that the rest of the family was participating in this voyeuristic act of spying on their own family member and a close friend and ally for no good reason.

"Master Bruce. Please explain yourself."

Master Bruce was not clearly not inclined to be forthcoming, but Alfred had to push him to some sort of realisation about the sheer impropriety of his actions. If he could make his charge understand that his actions were wrong, he would surely stop.

"Jason and Stephanie both asked for a day off, without providing a cause."

Ah. That was the game Master Bruce wanted to play. Regrettably, Alfred was just as good at conversing around the subject of interest.

"As I understand, given that they are legally dead and thus not formal employees of your organisation, you cannot ask them to provide a cause for taking leave. After all, they are both technically volunteering to support you at night."

"It was suspicious. Given their history, it was a reasonable decision to believe that they were up to something."

"Up to what, Master Bruce? A day of doubting your ability and temperament? Surely you haven't forgotten that the two of them are the ones who will always call you out bluntly, face to face?"

"I needed to know what they were discussing."

"No, Master Bruce, you _wanted_ to know what they were discussing, and you could not bring yourself to stop. There is a difference there, a substantial one."

"I have a right to know what they are up to."

"No, Master Bruce. They are both adults, who have a life outside of the box you want to put them into. And they have a right to keep it from you if they so desire. Just like you have a right to all the secrets you keep."

"Alfred, I promise I did not-"

"Know that the two of them were in an intimate relationship? I am aware they had repeatedly informed me of their reluctance to inform you about the situation because they feared that you would disapprove and attempt to interfere. A reluctance that remained despite all my assurances to the contrary."

Master Bruce paused for a second, apparently unable to come up with the appropriate retort.

"And the rest of you - why have you participated in this farce, instead of stopping him? You all clearly took a day off yourselves, and left the city to Master Duke and Miss Kate to watch over by themselves."

"We didn't mean to, but... Jason ended up saying some really troubling stuff." Master Dick's voice sounded unnaturally weak, but Alfred decided to ignore it for the moment.

"No matter what he may or may not have divulged to Miss Stephanie, it is something that you lot were not meant to hear. I would have expected-"

"Bruce slit Jason's throat." It seemed as though speaking the very words had caused bodily harm to Master Dick.

Alfred froze in shock.

"I beg your pardon, I must have misheard you."

"'Fraid not, Alfred. " Master Timothy sounded even more tired than usual. "Bruce slit Jason's throat. We saw the scar."

Alfred felt sadness and disappointment and horror wash over him before he made a strenuous effort to recompose himself.

He could not fall apart. He needed to hear Master Bruce say his part. It was not possible, Master Bruce _loved_ the boy, had mourned his passing, he wouldn't harm him in such a brutal fashion, would he?

"Master Bruce."

"I didn't know what to do. I was stressed, Jason had tossed me a gun, told me to kill the Joker. He was going to shoot him. I couldn't allow that."

"So your response was to kill him instead?"

"I didn't know that would happen."

"So you missed your throw?"

"No. I didn't know it would cut his throat."

"So you threw a knife at his neck, and did not stop to think that it might cause grievous harm?"

"I couldn't let anyone die."

Alfred couldn't believe it. His charge had decided to block out the consequences of his actions - for what? To preserve his own ego? To hold onto the idea of Jason he had? It was impossible to tell.

"Master Bruce. This... incident, was it the one where the Joker blew up the building afterwards, and you found him in the rubble?"

"Yes." It sounded like the words had been forcibly wrenched from Master Bruce's throat, past his gnashing teeth.

"You said that only the Joker was found in the rubble."

"Yes."

"Did you search for Jason?"

"No. The Joker's bones had been broken in the fall, and it appeared as though he had punctured a lung. I needed to get him to safety."

"You had to get a monster who _murdered your son_ to safety? Did you stop to think about the man who had been his victim, who lay under the rubble?"

"There was no time. I did what I had to."

"No, that was absolutely _not_ what you 'had to do'. What you 'had to do' was assure your son that his life and safety mattered more to you than your moral code. And failing that, the least you 'had to do' was not assault him and almost kill him. And failing that, the least you 'had to do' was get him to a hospital so that he didn't die again, and make sure that your attempt to hold onto your code had not been for nought."

"Not almost." Master Timothy's tone belied his disappointment. "He _did_ kill him."

Alfred felt a chill rising up his spine.

"At least, Todd seems to believe so." Master Damian's clarification was issued with an unnatural level of heat. "I am inclined to believe him, given the circumstances."

"Master Bruce, tell me that is not true."

"We do not know for sure. There is no way to verify his statements."

"You know, the scar on his neck does give all the evidence we need," Master Dick stated, moving up to the closest touchscreen to bring up an appropriate image."

"Dick, this is pointless." Miss Barbara's unmodulated voice showed the full extent of her exhaustion.

"No, it isn't." Master Dick was _angry_. "Alfred deserves to know."

"That's not why you're doing it."

"Yeah, I won't deny that there is some sick sense of satisfaction in seeing Bruce having to admit to his mistakes again, but he stuck a knife in my brother's throat. I'm not giving him a shred of sympathy."

"Master Dick." Alfred had to pull this away from whatever other grievances the other children had with Master Bruce, they could not afford to forget the real issue here.

"Right." Master Dick moved through the timeline of their recording, skipping through until he landed on an image of Master Jason baring his neck to reveal a hideous scar covering most of his throat.

As horrifying as it was, it did explain a lot.

"Yeah, looking at it again, I'm certain that it went deep enough to get to an artery." Master Timothy sounded resigned as if this was something he had expected.

Master Dick, however, was still angry. "And if we're splitting hairs about exactly whether it did hit an artery or not, we've already gone too far beyond what is acceptable."

 _Master Dick is certainly on point there_ , Alfred thought bitterly.

"Master Bruce... please, I beg you, stop this farce. The pair before you deserve better than this baseless assault on their privacy and personal lives."

Master Bruce's expression turned even harder than it already was.

"No."

"Please, Master Bruce, do not do this. This will not benefit anybody, and when you confront them about this, it will not end well for any of us."

Master Bruce's expression showed his refusal to budge. Alfred cursed himself for letting his charge become this infuriatingly stubborn.

"No."

"Master Bruce. This is your son, a son that you lost and almost managed to push away forever thanks to your dogged adherence to your code. He is with us now, but the relationship is precarious. I beseech you, stop this madness and leave them be."

And before the words had even left his mouth, Alfred could see Bruce's reply forming on the man's pursed lips.

"No."

\---------------------------------

Alfred stood in the kitchen, placing large bowls of food on a large serving trolley for the denizens of the Batcave. The lights cast a soft, pale glow over him, but were still a stark contrast to the darkness of the rest of the manor.

Fitting, given what he had just seen and heard.

Putting the lid on the bowl of tofu - a dish that had been added to suit Damian's need for vegetarian choices - Alfred pushed the trolley towards the elevator that led to the cave.

As he passed the door to the wine cellar, he remembered the whiskey Jason had bought for him.

\---------------------------------

_"Why do you call it a cellar?_

_"That is what it is, Master Jason."_

_"It's not under the ground. In fact, it's quite a bit_ over _the ground._

_"That's because the house has been rebuilt."_

_"Why, though? I though Bruce wasn't the type for renovations like that."_

_It was not the first time that Alfred was struck by the fact that Master Jason had been gone for so long, while the family had kept going without him._

_"...Because of the earthquake."_

_"Ah. I see."_

_Master Jason's smile fell away for a moment before it came back on. It seemed forced this time. Alfred wondered if he should tell him that he didn't need to pretend._

No, changing the subject would probably be better.

_"Master Jason. You said you had something for me?"_

_The smile immediately became more genuine._

_"Yeah, this is it."_

_The young man reached into his jacket and pulled out... a bottle. Of 25-year-old Glenlivet._

_"You once told me you preferred Scotch whisky, so I looked around, asked a couple of people, and they recommended this."_

_"I must say, Master Jason, this is a fine choice. Have you tasted it yourself?"_

_"Nope. I don't think expensive whisky is my thing."_

_"As happy as I am about that, allow me to request you to share a drink with you sometime shortly, so that I may convince you of the quality of these beverages."_

_"I guess I'll take you up on that soon, Alfie... I'm going to need it."_

_"May I inquire why?"_

_"The person who recommended this one is who I need to buy for next time."_

_"And who might that be?"_

_"My girlfriend."_

_Alfred felt his heart fill with pride and joy._

_"I must congratulate you, on having found a partner."_

_"Funny enough, she was the one who asked me out. It's nearly a year now, and I want to surprise her on our anniversary. Gourmet meal, fine drinks, the whole thing. She loves my cooking, so it's going to be pretty hard, but I'm not backing down. She deserves it for putting up with me."_

_"I assure you, Master Jason, it is unlikely to be that way. You are a fine young man, and any woman would be lucky to have you as a partner."_

_"Considering that she's part of our circle, she can do a lot better pretty easily."_

_"I'm not sure I understand what you mean."_

_"It's Steph. As in Stephanie Brown. As in Batgirl."_

_Oh. That was a surprise._

_But then again, it did seem right. The two of them had similar personalities, and their experiences had led to them having similar views on Master Bruce and the rest of the Bats._

_Master Jason grinned at him._

_"You're thinking about how we're similar, aren't you?"_

_Alfred's lips turned up in an answering smile._

_"Guilty as charged, Master Jason. But you have to admit, it is true."_

_"There's one important difference, though - she has somewhat strong opinions on what qualifies as a good alcoholic drink, so I'm going to need your help."_

_"You shall have it, Master Jason. May I ask what the occasion is?"_

_"Our anniversary. A year of being together."_

_A year. A year of a relationship and Alfred had missed that too. Jason had mentioned it before, but it was only sinking in now._

_"We just didn't want to tell people at the beginning, and we kinda forgot along the way. You're the first person I've told, Alfred."_

_Alfred shook his head._

_"Master Jason, I understand. I am proud that you believe me to be a worthy confidant. I assure you I will keep the news to myself."_

_"Thanks, Alfie... It means a lot to me."_

_"If I may make so bold, I believe I can recommend a particularly good whisky to you."_

_Alfred went to the side of the cellar that stored all the drinks he kept on hand for the valued guests with particular tastes. After all, most of the American guests that Master Bruce entertained were perfectly satisfied with random varieties of bourbon and various absurdly old wines._

_"A bottle of Glenmorangie, of a somewhat rare vintage. I am certain that Miss Brown will enjoy it."_

_"You can call her Stephanie, Alfie. Especially now. I know we're not part of the family-"_

_"Perish the thought, Master Jason. I assure you, both you and Miss Stephanie belong here. Irrespective of your relationship with Master Bruce, you are my grandson."_

_Master Jason's eyes misted over._

_"I love you too, Alfie. I mean it."_

_"I know, Master Jason. I know."_

\---------------------------------

As Alfred walked into the room, pushing the trolley before himself, he noticed Master Jason and Miss Stephanie turn away from the television screen and face each other.

Miss Stephanie was the first to speak.

"So? Thoughts?"

"I gotta say, the animation team is _not_ catching up to the writing team here."

"Hey, it wasn't that bad."

"It's nowhere near as good as it used to be."

"You're just another guy who keeps asking for the old days to come back."

"Actually, it's like the old days now. The stuff that came before, that was fresh and new."

"You don't need to complain about it."

"But you just asked for my-"

"That's not what I meant!"

Master Jason laughed, and Alfred felt a smile tug at his face. Then his gaze shifted to Master Bruce, and the impulse vanished as fast as it came.

"Master Bruce." Alfred had to get him to stop.

Everyone in the room turned to face him. Only Miss Cassandra smiled.

At times like these, Alfred often felt that the young lady of the house was too good for the rest of them. Too compassionate, too kind.

He pushed the thought away. That was a discussion for another time.

"I beg you, Master Bruce, please stop. _Please_.

"I can't, Alfred. I need to know."

"And what is it that you gain by doing this that can make up for the loss of their trust in you?"

"They already don't trust me. I don't have much to lose."

"You are wrong on multiple fronts there, Master Bruce. First - they _do_ trust you. Immensely. There is a reason they join you in the fight for this city every night."

"They're just committed to the job."

"A job they would have found other ways to carry out if they felt the need for it. I assure you, Master Bruce, they are capable of handling themselves."

Master Bruce seemed to have no reply, so Alfred decided to proceed.

"Second - you are not merely damaging their faith in you, but their faith in the rest of us too. By letting you carry on, I am complicit in your actions."

"That has never troubled you before, Alfred." Master Bruce's voice was as hard as steel. "Why now?"

"Because I had always believed that you would make the right choice when it matters. That despite all your faults, you were a good man, a man who could resist pride and greed and cruelty. I had believed that I could trust you to at least make an attempt to be right and to do good. And in that process, I let you commit shameful acts that have torn our family apart. And I rue the fact that I am in fact not your parent, and have no way to convince you that you are _wrong_."

Alfred watched as the man who he had considered a son flinched in shock, his face twisting with grief.

It did not last.

A moment later, the mask was back.

"I'm sorry, Alfred. But I have to do this. I can't stop now."

"As I said, Master Bruce, you do not _have_ to do this. You want to."

Alfred turned around and walked back to the elevator.

"I said I'm sorry, Alfred. What more can I do?"

"Who am I to tell you what to do, Master Wayne?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I probably haven't said this as much as I should, but any feedback, even the harsh and non-constructive type where you rant at me about all the things I obviously shouldn't have written, is welcome. Also, thanks for reading!


	13. Right and Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another season of RWBY passes, and another, and Jason and Steph are done. They wonder about what right and good actually mean. It is in a purely academic context.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been hard to write for this story... I don't want to leave it alone because that's just asking for the ideas to die out, and I have the epilogue planned anyway. It's just become... harder to write stories with such a generally happy tone.

Alfred stood behind the trolley, separating himself from the gaggle of children masquerading as grown human beings as they silently took their plates from the cart and settled into position before the Batcomputer.

Miss Cassandra came up to him and patted him on the shoulder, but he could only offer a weak smile.

The night had been draining, and he wished that this recent run of stupidity would die out as fast as possible. It would have been too slow for his taste, but at least it would end.

"It's okay." Miss Cassandra was truly a godsend they did not deserve.

"No, Miss Cassandra, it is not okay. Not by any stretch of the imagination."

Master Bruce chose that moment to showcase his stubbornness.

"Alfred, we need to know if they are capable of objectively operating in the field. That is the most important thing."

"Master Wayne, I am afraid that I must disagree."

"Alfred-"

The old man raised his hand in dismissal.

"I am afraid that in my old age, I am unable to summon the patience and compassion to let you run roughshod over people who deserve better. I may not have the authority to tell you what to do, but I believe I am allowed to not be an accomplice."

He watched the man he had raised flinch at his words, but he was past caring at this point.

"Will that be all, Master Wayne?"

"Please, Alfred."

"...I await your orders, Master Wayne."

Master Dick chose that moment to speak up. "We'll... stop soon. I hope. In any case, you don't need to be here, Alf. We'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"I'm afraid you are engaging in the stupidity here, Master Dick."

Master Dick grimaced. "Yeah... we are. Sorry."

At least he had the humility to look sheepish.

Well, the damage had mostly been done already. Alfred decided to alert the couple later to ensure that they were able to deal with this as soon as possible.

Leaving the serving trolley behind, Alfred turned around and headed for the elevator.

_Stupid bloody fools._

\---------------------------------

Dick was putting his dishes on the trolley Alfred had left behind when Jason resumed the conversation on that end.

"Okay, first things first - that last bit with Jinn was a nice touch. I did not see that coming."

"Okay, so you saw every other twist coming, but not that one?"

"Yep."

Steph shook her head. Dick would have described her expression as 'kindly exasperated'.

"So, how was that one?"

"You know, looking back, I liked it better than I thought I would."

"What did you think about Yang and Blake?"

"They work well together. In all ways. I'm amazed that they allowed those characters the dignity of subtlety and grace."

"Wow, you seem to feel very strongly about that."

"Am I going to regret this a couple hours later?"

Steph paused for a second to think. "No, I don't think so."

"Well, that's good, I guess."

Jason shifted from his position on the couch, looking around at the arrangement of plates, glasses and bottles.

"I'll put this stuff away."

"Keep the bottle. I like how it looks."

"You're going to pour that shitty dollar-store wine into it and give it to someone, aren't you?"

"...You know me too well."

"Please don't. Alfred will _kill_ me."

"Eh, he likes you. You'll live."

"He won't like me if I insult one of his favourite beverages like that."

"It's just an empty bottle. It's going in the dustbin anyway."

"Nope. I'm giving it to Alfred. He'll probably use it to store some of the Scotch-style whisky that's been brewing in the cellar."

"Knowing him, it's probably going to be better than most of the stuff we can buy from that store down the street."

"What do you expect? It's Alfred. The man is a god walking among us mortals."

Steph laughed, waving Jason off as he left for... the kitchen, presumably? Dick had no idea.

Dick wholeheartedly agreed with Steph on that count. Alfred was truly superhuman.

(He knew he was forcing himself to ignore how creepy he was being. He also ignored how this had become a lot easier after his stint as Batman.)

\---------------------------------

It was nearing the end of the episode - was it 10? 11? Something like that - and Dick found himself enraptured by how Jason and Steph were silently absorbing that... weird action show.

(He would have to ask Tim or Babs about it later. It looked fun.)

They had barely spoken since the beginning of the season, but... the silence didn't seem to be weighing on them as it was weighing on the denizens of the Cave.

Here, once they had run out of reasons for their spying and arguments to serve as distractions, all the had was the discomfort of being co-conspirators in a crime none of them actually wanted to commit, but couldn't stop themselves from engaging in.

Dick looked at the monitor again, at the camera looking at Jason and Steph's hands intertwining. He watched their expressions soften as the contact deepened.

"They look so happy." Dick had blurted out the words before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, you should see them on patrol. They are _insufferable_." Babs' voice ran through the Cave, a soft, light tone that felt kind despite sounding nothing like her real voice.

Cass jumped into the conversation.

"Yes. They are... cute."

Dick laughed. "Yes, Cass, they are."

Yes, they were both cute. Dick felt his heart swell up at the thought.

_My Little Wing is in love._

His eyes wandered to Bruce, whose eyes were locked onto Steph.

Which was... odd, given his fixation on Jason.

He wondered what the old man was thinking. Was he plotting revenge on Jason for this slight?

(That it was essentially self-inflicted was probably not of relevance, since Bruce was probably not seeing it that way.)

Then again, Bruce didn't look angry. Just... sad.

Dick would have added the adjectives of betrayal and jealousy, but... that probably wasn't appropriate.

Whatever. Dick was done thinking about Bruce.

Steph and Jason were more important here.

He had to admit, they did fit together well. Jason had mellowed over the past couple years, and clearly, Steph had had a role to play in that transformation. Thanks to her, Jason was on speaking terms with the rest of them, and Dick was extremely thankful for that. Despite all his misgivings about his wayward brother, he was family.

No matter what Bruce thought.

Bruce had forfeited his right to a relationship with Jason through his own ego, but that didn't mean the rest of them had to lose out, did it?

Maybe it did. After all, they had all had most of the clues needed to divine Bruce's attitude towards Jason, and they had done nothing about it.

Still, Dick could make an effort. He didn't want to miss out on any more years of his Little Wing's life.

He had been an awful big brother to Jason when he was Robin. Bruce did bear most of the blame for that, but still - he had let his argument with his guardian supersede his duty to be a good brother.

And even when Jason had come back, he had ignored the brother he had found to mourn the brother he had lost.

He hoped Jason would find it in his heart to forgive him.

\---------------------------------

As the show ended, Jason and Steph resumed their conversation.

"Okay, that was a good first act."

Steph raised her eyebrow. "First act?"

"Of part 3."

"Yeah... now that you mention it, it is pretty obvious."

"Nobody died."

" _What_." Steph's voice was low.

"Okay, nobody _important_ died."

"How dare you speak of Clover like that? He was so cool."

"And not much else. No real use for the character apart from being a tool for Qrow's character growth."

"Point taken."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Dick felt the tension inside him rise again.

"It's funny, how much they talk about right and good."

"Is it?"

"That's Ruby's struggle this season, isn't it? The difference between right and good?"

"What does that even mean?"

"Ozpin, he was _obsessed_ with being good - probably because the gods themselves had built him up to be a counterpoint to Salem's bad."

"I would have presumed you would say he was obsessed with being right."

"No - the right thing to do is try and push people to be better, to make them understand that they can't live life the way they do right now. Their world literally depends on them behaving."

"So?"

"However, good people like him want to believe that they can just purge the bad stuff from the world. He knows he can't, and thus his choice is to admit defeat to himself and hide things from everyone else."

Steph nodded, encouraging Jason to proceed.

"Ruby, though... she is good at heart. And she had a knack for knowing what the right thing to do is, too. But she's coming to terms with how the right thing and the good thing don't always line up."

"Wow, that was a surprising amount of pointless analysis for a TV show."

"Why is it pointless?"

"Because right and good don't really mean anything."

"Thing is, in a world with primordial evil that feeds on pain and fear, it does."

Steph twisted her lips in a somewhat comical thoughtful expression. "Yeah, you have a point."

"I always do."

"Ass."

Jason laughed.

"You sure you talking about the show?"

"Hell yes."

Steph snorted. "Sure you are."

"I assure you, that analysis was only for the show."

"And not at all derived from real life?"

"Of course it's _derived_ from real life. That doesn't make it applicable."

"Would you like to apply it to real life?"

"Nah. It would require a lot more rigorous thought, and I bet all I'll get is disappointment."

They both grimaced, and the silence that arose felt a lot less comfortable to Dick.

\---------------------------------

"The next volume is here, you know."

"Is it?"

"It started a few days ago. I haven't seen it yet. We could watch it together."

"If it's not complete, I'll pass. I want to watch the complete story in one go."

"Fair point."

"So... you up for _Throne of Blood_?"

"After lunch. And some sleep."

"Will do, Blondie."

Jason got up and left for the kitchen. Stephanie lay back down, stretching her muscles like a cat after a nap.

It reminded Dick of Cass.

Which made sense, on some level. Cass had given her uniform to Steph.

Why did everything always come back to their masks?

Maybe that was their curse, to live with the masks casting their long shadow over their non-costumed lives. Dick knew his life was spent pretty much entirely in that space, due to his day job as a cop.

Not to mention that Jason didn't have a day job, on account of being a dead man who was also a retired crime boss.

As he watched Jason walk around the kitchen, he wondered if the shadow would ever go away.

\---------------------------------

Cass decided that she had had enough.

She walked up to the Batcomputer and began to close all the open windows.

She knew Dad would object.

Well, he would try.

"Cassandra. What is the meaning of this."

"This is enough."

She saw his body twitch and knew he was going to speak.

"Enough."

"But-"

" _Enough_."

He stopped.

"You can stop."

Barbara decided to choose that moment to rise to her support.

"Yep, Cass is right. It is enough, Bruce. All you have done so far is intrude into their private space and tried to gather compromising information to make them bend to your will. And no, I'm not in a charitable mood now, so don't ask."

Thankfully, Dad remained silent.

"Bruce." Barbara's voice had a lot more feeling now. "Please. You need to stop."

"Okay."

Dick chose that opportunity to come in.

"Good. Do we have all the plates here?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. I'm taking the trolley upstairs, I'll try to get the dishes done. Tim, you're with me."

"But-" Tim tried to protest, but it was useless, Dick was too... convincing? _Persuasive_ , that's the word, persuasive. He was too _persuasive_ for her younger brother to refuse.

"Damian, help Cass deal with the beanbags and stuff."

"No, I-" Damian's refusal was spirited, even though he knew it was pointless,

"Will do it unless you want to watch over Bruce."

Damian went over to the nearest beanbag.

"Cool. Babs, you can watch Bruce, right? And deal with the surveillance network?"

"You sure you don't want to leave Tim here?" Barbara was really good at thinking like Dick.

"Yep."

"I'll take your word for it." Barbara's voice sounded strained. She was probably tired.

Cass went over to another beanbag.

Her father remained in his chair, as people moved around him.

She thought he looked lonely. And sad.

So sad.

_I hope he can be happy again soon._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Truth be told, part of why this chapter has been hard is my insistence on sticking to RWBY as a metaphor for Jason and Steph to use. I didn't have much for volume 6, and Batcave drama would have been a tired trope now. I just settled on internal struggles and sped up this part, so that I can get to fleshing out the end. Here's to hoping that it works out.


	14. An Epilogue (of sorts)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph and Jason find out about what the Bats did. It has some... severe consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to be more optimistic while writing this chapter, I really did, but it still came out pretty dour and vindictive. I hope it doesn't suck.

Steph yawned as she leaned back into the elevator walls, waiting for it to travel all the way up to Babs' accommodations.

Even after all these years, she still felt uncomfortable in the Tower. Of being judged by heroes who had done so much more than her, and had combatted adversities she couldn't dream of facing up to.

The first Batgirl was one of those people. Even though she had been Batgirl longer than any of her predecessors by now, she couldn't help but feel outmatched and outclassed whenever she was in a room with Babs.

When Babs had fallen victim to the Joker, had been robbed of her legs and forced to give up being Batgirl, she had decided to forge a new identity, and prove the extent of her capabilities.

When Steph got herself killed by Black Mask, she had decided to run from Gotham to forget being a hero. Not exactly the pinnacle of self-emancipation, was it?

Even Cass wasn't that intimidating, and her whole Black Bat shtick was essentially an amplified version of Bruce's 'I Am The Night™' mode.

But then again, outside the masks Cass was the sweetest person alive, so...

Whatever the case, Steph was nervous, as always.

The nervousness was only amplified by the terseness of Babs' summons ( _what else would you call it, Stephanie, that's what it was_ ). All she had gotten was a curt instruction to be at her room at the Tower by 6 PM.

It was 5:51, and the lift had barely gotten halfway there.

Steph took a deep breath, as the floor pushed against her feet and the numbers on the little panel to her right continued to tick up.

Twenty floors to go.

Eighteen floors.

Sixteen floors.

_Why did Babs have to take the topmost floor? Certainly, it didn't have anything to do with convenience for the visitors._

Barely a week had passed since her anniversary break with Jason, and she was already bone-tired and ready to flop onto a bed and sleep for a day. She wondered if gorging herself on Jason's cooking for a week had made her lazy.

_No, it's probably the projects I need to start working on instead of planning for._

Seven floors to go.

Five floors.

Three. Two. One.

_Zero. Here we go, Steph._

With a soft **ping** , the doors slid open, and the entrance to Oracle's lair lay before her.

Steph took a deep breath and pushed herself off the wall, sighing as she walked out of the elevator.

\---------------------------------

"Hi Babs. You called for me?"

"Yes, Steph. There's been... developments that you should be aware of."

Babs' expression was grim.

_Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good._

"What happened? Is someone dead?"

"No. But given the situation... violence seems to be a likely outcome."

"What violence? Where?"

"...Perhaps this would be easier if I showed you."

Barbara turned to face her large, white keyboard and began typing, the clicks reverberating in the quiet room. Steph dimly remembered Tim telling her something about the positives of mechanical keyboards, at which point she decided to tell herself to focus on the current situation instead of trying to distract herself with irrelevant factoids that were ineffective in calming her down. She was more nervous than she had been before, not less. This was clearly not working.

Barbara's voice snapped her out of her reverie.

"Steph? Look at this."

A bunch of images crowded out all available screen space on the array of monitors in the room, and Steph felt her blood run cold.

"What the fuck?"

"...Yeah." Babs sounded resigned.

"No, Babs, what the fuck is this? We need to know who got this stuff! We need to catch them-"

"Relax, Steph."

"No, Babs, we can't relax, Jason could be in danger-"

"He won't. This footage is private. We know."

"How?"

From the look on Babs' face, the answer was clearly something she wouldn't like.

"Babs?"

"This was recorded by equipment belonging to Batman."

_What the fuck?_

Oh, there would be _hell_ to pay for this.

"Steph, I know this looks bad, but please-"

"Please what, Babs? He tried to spy on us! What if others-"

"Everyone already knows, Steph. They were watching."

To further emphasize her point, Babs plays a video.

On screen, she notices Jason sitting next to her, his hand placed comfortingly on her own.

_"-you can't just throw your own life away for this."_

Babs shifts to footage of the Cave, showing all the other Bats arranged before the large screens of the Batcomputer.

"What. The. Fuck."

"Steph, I know you're angry, but-"

"Angry? I'm not just angry, I'm fucking _furious_! Why the fuck is everyone so into this?"

"You have to understand, they didn't know-"

"Because we didn't want them to! We can do without their judgement for at least once in our goddamn lives!"

"Please, Steph, give them a chance to-"

"Hell fucking no. I'm not giving them jack shit after this."

She turns and leaves, ignoring Babs' repeated requests to hear her out.

\---------------------------------

Jason heard the door open with a crash, and he immediately picked up the gun on the table before him.

Nobody was supposed to be here now.

He pointed his gun towards the door, as his eyes met Steph's.

"Steph? You're here? Weren't you supposed to meet Babs and Cass?" He lowered his gun but kept it in his hand. Steph wasn't looking calm and happy as she always did.

"Yes. I did."

"What happened?" Jason kept his voice level, as he scanned his surroundings for threats.

"We're being spied on."

Jason raised an eyebrow.

"By the Bats. They have the whole apartment covered."

"Since when?"

"A long time. They were watching us when we were on break together."

"...What?"

"I know. Before you get as pissed as I am, let's remove the bugs first. I know there's one on top of the TV, and once we have that, we can check what kind of signal it's transmitting and get the rest."

"Why would they all have the same signal?"

"Because they would be easier to hide if you chose a narrow range of wavelengths."

"Fair enough."

Gritting his teeth, Jason walked to the TV and dragged his palm across the top, trying to find out where the bug was.

\---------------------------------

As they dropped the last few surveillance devices in the room onto the pile on the dining table, Jason heaved a sigh.

"Okay, that's a lot of cameras."

Steph nodded, looking at the heap. "And there's even more microphones there."

"I'm guessing Bruce didn't make or plant these."

"No, he didn't. This is Tim's tech, he showed it to me... about six months ago? Maybe eight?"

"Whatever it was, it's been here too long."

He opened the toolbox he had pulled out from under the bed and removed a large hammer.

"You want to do the honours?"

"Gladly." Steph took the hammer with a smirk.

The newest Batgirl raised the hammer and brought it down on the pile of bugs with a resounding smash.

Before the splintered pieces of plastic and silicon had time to settle, another blow rained down.

And another.

And another.

Jason watched as his girlfriend rained down a multitude of blows onto the table, as the glass cracked bit by bit.

With one final smash, Steph broke what was left of the bugs, as well as the table, which finally shattered into a million pieces.

Well, considering that the place was going to get incinerated a short time after they left, it was probably fine.

As Steph dropped the hammer down onto the floor, breathing heavily, Jason dragged her into a tight embrace.

He could hear Steph's teeth gnashing as she fought to get her emotions under control.

"You okay, Blondie?"

"...Yeah, I think so."

"Okay, let's pack up your stuff. We're leaving."

"We can't just leave this behind-"

"We won't. I called for some help."

"Help? Whose help?"

Jason was about to reply when the bell rang.

He shook his head, laughing.

"Wow, she has impeccable timing."

"Who does? Jason, what's this about?"

"You'll see."

Jason walked to the door, as Steph followed him closely. He noticed her darting into the kitchen and picking up a knife.

"Steph, you don't need to do that."

Steph did not respond.

Grinning, he opened the door, to be greeted with a familiar face.

"Hello, Habibi."

"Hi, T."

\---------------------------------

As Talia's assassin entourage moved the last of Jason and Steph's stuff from the room into a somewhat large, well-padded moving van that they had brought along with them, Jason walked up to her.

"You're moving this to the Metropolis condo, right?"

"No, the penthouse."

Jason felt his jaw drop.

"Talia, _no_ , we can't just randomly move into the penthouse! Hell, even you don't stay there!"

"I will, from now on. Unless you have an objection?"

"No, of course not-"

"Then I guess I shall use this opportunity to... get to know her better. It's about time, isn't it?"

Steph chose that exact moment to butt into the conversation.

"Yep, it is. You won't mind arranging a car to Gotham Medical University, right?"

Talia just raised an eyebrow.

"I'll take that as a yes. I think I have quite a few stories about some of the stupid shit your son has been up to in the time since our last meeting."

Talia was quick to reply. "And I believe I have some excellent recipes for waffles to accompany your tales, now that we can live together."

Jason sighed, massaging his temple with his right hand.

"This was a mistake." He knew he sounded somewhat petulant instead of resigned and defeated, but he couldn't be bothered to care.

Both the women turned to him, their faces stuck in a terrifyingly similar quizzical expression.

"Yep, definitely a mistake."

\---------------------------------

Steph walked into the Cave, dressed in civvies, carrying her Batgirl costume and the associated accessories in her left hand, while her right hand was curled into a fist.

She had taken the stairs, so Alfred was right behind her.

As she came in, she noticed Tim and Damian sparring on the mats, while Cass and Dick watched.

Bruce was on the Batcomputer, typing away.

Ignoring everyone else, she walked right up to the big man himself, only barely registering how Tim and Damian had stopped their match as soon as she entered to watch her along with the other observers.

She was here to talk at Bruce, and that was _it_.

She chucked the bag of gear at Bruce's face, before saying her piece.

"I quit."

She could feel the shock in her audience, but she steeled herself to not react to it.

She walked up to Cass, to hand over the Batgirl costume.

"Thanks a lot for letting me be Batgirl, Cass. I'm sorry for any mistakes I made, and for giving it up now. I can't do it."

"Steph-"

"I'm sorry, Cass. Please, take it. You don't need to wear it again - I would never ask something like that of you - but I would like it if you accepted me leaving this behind."

Cass looked at her, then at the costume, then back at her.

"Please, Cass. I won't ask anything else of you ever again."

Slowly, the second Batgirl's arms reached ahead, grabbing the neatly folded suit before her.

"Thank you."

She walked past Cass, in the direction of the stairs she had descended only a few minutes ago.

Unfortunately, Tim chose that precise moment to come back to life.

"Steph, you can't be serious about this."

She turned to face him. "In fact, Tim, I can be serious about this. And sadly, I am serious about this."

"You can't just walk away from this!"

"Watch me."

Damian snorted.

"It is fitting for you to abandon your post a second time, Brown."

"Yep. I take pride in being the only one in this group who knows what's good for her and doesn't want to sacrifice herself for her pride."

"Oh, I believe you do have enough experience in sacrificing yourself for pride."

Steph decided to not give Damian the argument he was expecting and preparing for.

"Yep, and that was a mistake I do not intend to repeat. Unlike you guys, who seem to actually _want_ to die 'in the line of duty' or however else you refer to our night job."

Damian didn't seem to have a response to that.

Sadly, Dick was clearly ready to pick up the slack.

"Did Hood put you up to this?"

"No. This is my choice. I know, it's a foreign concept for you Batmans, but it exists within some people who actually understand what's good for their own health."

Dick seemed to have no response to that.

"And I know that _Jason_ will be on my side on this."

Nobody else managed to get a response out quick enough.

She managed to walk up the stairs and out into the manor proper before Alfred caught up with her near the kitchen.

"Miss Brown?"

She turned around to face the old man who was effectively their grandfather.

"I was hoping you could tell me when and where I can meet you two again."

"You know our door is always open to you, Alfie."

"And I am aware that you will shortly leave your current place of residence behind, so I merely ask if you could tell me where you plan to make a home next."

Steph laughed. Alfred was truly too sharp for any of them.

Maybe even better than Cass. Seriously, the man had a knack for knowing people inside out.

"I don't think I can tell you that, but I can tell you that Jason would be present at the Tea Market just to the North of Park Row."

Alfred nodded, looking instantly relieved.

_Maybe he's going to actually do something about it this time. Either way, I'm done._

She nodded to Alfred and walked to the front door.

After picking up her coat and putting on her shoes, she strode out purposefully to the car parked outside.

It's being driven by ninjas, which would normally make it a dangerous situation, but this time, it was the best assurance Talia or Jason could give as to her safety.

_Hopefully I won't need to test any of that_ , Steph thought as the car drove away.

\---------------------------------

Cass looked at the Batgirl costume, now laid out on her bed, as she tried to put together why Steph had left.

She knew that what Bruce and the rest of the boys had done was wrong, but... she had hoped Steph would forgive him. They loved her, this shouldn't have ended this badly.

Should it?

Cass knew Jason and Steph weren't people who forgave easily. With them, trust was hard to earn and easy to lose, and they had just lost it.

She had known about their relationship, had known their desire to keep it from the Bats to ensure that they stayed out of their personal lives, but she had still let Bruce and the boys spy on them for nearly a whole day.

She could have stopped them, but she didn't.

Was this her fault?

If it was, she hoped Steph could forgive her eventually. She didn't want her best friend to hate her.

As she picked up the costume to store it away, a small piece of blue paper fell out of it.

Cass hesitated for a while, but she eventually picked it up to look at it.

It was a note. From Steph.

> _I hope I wasn't too harsh on you, Cass. You're the closest friend I have, and I love you, but I can't really let Bruce keep doing this. I can't trust him to not try to push his judgement on us, not when he can't give us even a slight bit of privacy. I know he loves us, in his own strange way, but his actions don't really help._
> 
> _I'm moving to Metropolis, with Jason. I'm sure you can understand why I can't tell you where. But I would like to stay in touch with you, if you can keep our secret._
> 
> _I've enclosed a communicator in the costume. You will be able to call us whenever you want, and we'll answer._
> 
> _We're not ready to see you or the other Bats yet, but I hope we will be. At some time in the future, hopefully sooner rather than later._
> 
> _Yours truly,  
>  Stephanie._
> 
> _P.S. My call sign is Spoiler._

Cass felt a surge of happiness within her as she rummaged through the suit and fished out a small, black device with a small red light and a few plastic buttons.

With a ridiculously wide smile painted on her face, she pressed the button to call.

\---------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I'm in the right mindspace for this story anymore, the way I was when I started it. A story like this, with central characters who are mostly fine and get what they want, doesn't feel as satisfying as it did when I wrote the first chapter. I hope it still works for all of you who stuck with it this far, and I'm truly thankful for your time.
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this isn't entirely terrible. I've been wanting to write about how Jason and Steph could get each other to actually work through their issues while the Batfam rots in their emotional constipation. (Actually, I wanted to write a scene where the Batfamily is trying to monitor Jason in the cave, get shocked by Steph showing up, getting scared of being witness to a sex tape in the making and getting even more scared of Jason talking about his feelings. It felt appropriate, that honest conversation would be the scariest thing of all.)
> 
> Any feedback, constructive or otherwise, is welcome. Hope you like it!
> 
> EDIT: Now that the story is done, I have... mixed feelings on the experience. My circumstances have changed dramatically since I began writing this piece, and I hope I managed to maintain a consistent tone. I also hope it didn't dip into the cynicism I feel now, at the end.
> 
> As stated before, any and all feedback is welcome, I would like to be able to use it to become a better writer.


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